On March 9, filing for the California primary closed (except in a few districts in which the incumbent is not running for re-election). It appears that there are only thirteen minor party candidates running for U.S. House of Representatives and state legislature. This is the lowest number of California minor party candidates for those offices since 1966, when there were no parties on the ballot in California except for the Democratic and Republican Parties, and thus no minor party candidates on the ballot.

In 2010, there were 74 minor party candidates on the California ballot for U.S. House and legislature.

In the U.S. Senate race, it appears that one Peace & Freedom Party member, and one Libertarian, and two American Independent Party members, filed. In 2010, there were six minor party candidates for U.S. Senate on the primary ballot, and four in the general election. Also in November 2010, the Socialist Workers Party had a declared write-in U.S. Senate candidate. Even write-in candidates in the general election are now barred.

Proposition 14, passed by the voters in June 2010, is responsible for this drop in candidacies. Proposition 14 makes it virtually impossible for minor party members to participate in the general election, so many candidates decided not to file. Furthermore, the implementing legislation for Proposition 14, SB 6, severely increased the number of signatures needed for a petition in lieu of the filing fee.

California always has 100 regularly-scheduled legislative elections, every two years, and in the last ten years, has had 53 U.S. House seats up every two years. It appears that for U.S. House and legislature combined, there are six Greens, five Libertarians, two Peace & Freedom Party members, and no American Independent Party members running. It is unlikely that any member of Americans Elect filed, but this can’t be known for sure until the Secretary of State releases the list of candidates. UPDATE: an earlier version of this post said there are four Peace & Freedom Party candidates for district office, but in fact there are only two. Therefore the total number of minor party members running for district office this year in California is thirteen, not fifteen.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office award Americans Elect a trademark for its name. Americans Elect is not the first party to trademark its name. The Washington State Libertarian Party obtained a trademark for its name years ago. That has been an issue in the ongoing legislation over the Washington state top-two system.