David Orr has this letter to the editor in the May 5 Chicago Tribune. Orr is the County Clerk of Cook County, Illinois. He says ballot access should be eased. Orr was elected on the Democratic ticket in 1990, and he has been re-elected every four years, ever since.

I have been paying attention to publicity about ballot access for many decades, and I have never before seen so much attention paid to restrictive ballot access laws during a mid-term year. Presidential election years sometimes also provide much publicity about ballot access laws, especially in 1980, 1992, and 2000. But probably there has never been a mid-term election year in the United States in which so much attention was paid to the ballot access issue. This year, major newspapers in Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, have publicized the issue in a supportive way.

The press in Massachusetts and New Hampshire ought to be paying attention, but newspapers in those two states seem to have a blind spot. Massachusetts ballot access to primary ballots is so bad, Massachusetts is the only non-southern state in which most legislative races usually have only one candidate on the November ballot. But no Massachusetts newspaper ever talks about this.

Thanks to Jeff Trigg for the link.

This Los Angeles Times story mentions that the campaign in favor of California’s Proposition 14, the “top-two” ballot measure set for the June 8 ballot, has $2,800,000 on hand. Most of it was raised from wealthy individuals and large corporations, aided by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fund for ballot issues. The story also mentions that the opponents have raised very little money, and therefore backers are optimistic.

There is a vigorous campaign against Proposition 14, carried on around the state in public meetings of civic groups, and in radio debates. In 2004, when another “top-two” measure was on the California ballot, opponents raised $600,000; proponents raised several million dollars; and the measure was defeated.

On May 5, Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State, announced that the initiative concerning how U.S. House boundaries are drawn has qualified for the November 2010 ballot. The measure would provide that the Citizens Redistricting Commission draw boundaries for U.S. House districts. California already has such a Commission, but under existing law it only draws the boundaries for state office districts.

A rival petition is circulating to completely abolish the Citizens Redistricting Commission, and it may possibly also appear on the November 2010 ballot.