On February 21, the Kansas House tentatively passed HB 2516, the bill to increase the statewide independent petition from 5,000 signatures to 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, about 21,000 signatures. It will get a final vote in the House on Thursday, February 22.
See this story. The bill’s author, Representative Paul Waggoner (R-Hutchinson) seems to think the best argument for this bill is rooted in the history of Kansas gubernatorial elections. What he doesn’t say is that Kansas required 2,500 signatures for statewide independent candidates in the years 1897 through 1991, and 5,000 signatures since then. Kansas elected its Governor every two years until 1974, and starting with 1974, the terms were four years.
Thus, Kansas has had 51 gubernatorial elections since petitions were first required. Out of those 51 elections, never has more than a single independent candidate been on the ballot for Governor. And in 42 of those elections, there were no independent candidates on the ballot for Governor. The years with one gubernatorial candidate on the ballot were 1914, 1924, 1932, 1938, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1990, and 2022.
The purpose of ballot access barriers is to keep the ballot from being too crowded. Obviously the old requirements have easily accomplished that goal.
The bill takes effect for this election, so independent candidates who are already petitioning now for president will have a strong due process lawsuit if the bill passes. In 1990, when the legislature increased the requirement from 2,500 to 5,000, the Secretary of State ruled that he would only require 2,500 for 1990, because he felt it wasn’t fair to increase the petition requirement in the middle of petitioning season. He made that decision on August 29. There are court precedents from other states that it violates due process to increase the ballot access barriers in the middle of petitioning season, and one of them, Hudler v Austin, was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.
