Both houses of the South Carolina legislature have now passed bills that make it more difficult for independent candidates to get on the ballot. However, the versions in each house are significantly different.

The House bill, HB 3746, is worse. It does not reduce the number of signatures, and it imposes three crippling restrictions: (1) no one could sign who had voted in the primary, or who will vote in a future primary that year; (2) newly-registered voters could not sign; (3) no one could sign for two independent candidates running for the same office.

The Senate bill, SB 590, is the same as the House bill, except it at least reduces the number of signatures. Statewide and U.S. House petitions would go from 10,000 signatures to 4,000 signatures; legislative candidates would go from 5% of the number of registered voters, to 3%. The Senate bill passed the Senate on February 3.

The part of the bills that says newly-registered voters cannot sign would be unconstitutional, under a U.S. Supreme Court summary affirmance from 1970, Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller. The primary screenout would almost surely be unconstitutional if the number of signatures is not reduced. Even with no primary screenout, no independent candidate for either house of Congress has ever qualified for a government-printed ballot in South Carolina. In Storer v Brown, the U.S. Supreme Court said that a 5% (of the last vote cast) petition, combined with a primary screenout, is probably unconstitutional, and the way to settle the matter is to see how often any candidate has been able to get on the ballot.

Bills to abolish the straight-ticket device have been introduced recently in Rhode Island and West Virginia. A straight-ticket device lets a voter cast a ballot for all partisan offices on the ballot without even looking to see who is running. The voter simply makes a single mark to cast a vote for every nominee of one particular party for all offices.

The Rhode Island bills are SB 2310 and HB 7482. The Senate bill is sponsored by three Republicans, one Democrat, and one Independent The House bill is sponsored by four Democrats and one Republican.

The West Virginia bill is HB 2974, by Delegate Troy Andes (R-Hurricane).

There are also three Oklahoma bills to abolish the straight-ticket device, but they were introduced in 2009. They are still alive because Oklahoma has two-year sessions.

In 2009, the California Assembly passed AB 909, which instructs precinct polling place officials that they should orally inform independent voters that they are free to choose a Democratic or a Republican primary ballot (except that independent voters can’t vote in the Republican presidential primary).

The bill will be brought up this year in the State Senate, shortly after the June 8, 2010 primary is over. The bill’s author will wait to see if the voters pass or reject the top-two open primary, Proposition 14. The bill will have no meaning (except for the Democratic presidential primary) if Prop. 14 passes.