Two-thirds of the states have serious problems with their ballot access laws. Since 1985, progress in overcoming these problems has come mostly by state legislatures voluntarily improving the laws. Progress was good during the 1990’s, but this decade has been much slower. If you are in a state with bad ballot access laws, now is the time for you to organize with like-minded individuals in your state, and ask a state legislator to introduce a reform bill next year. State legislators usually plan which bills they will introduce several months before the legislative session convenes. Finding a sponsor is half the battle, but it must be done in the next two months.

There are a handful of states in which the legislature does not meet in even-numbered years, except in special session. The only large state in this category is Texas.

OpEdNews.com has a report by Michael Collins here about the opening day of the Reclaim Democracy conference. That conference extends into November 10 and November 11 as well. The first day of the conference focused largely on the curtailment of voting rights for District of Columbia residents, as well as voting rights problems for New Orleans residents, and the Electoral College.

The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) was founded in 1985. It consists of the nation’s nationally-organized minor parties, and other organizations, that wish to work toward easing ballot access barriers for minor party and independent candidates, and also to work against other barriers to free elections. Organizations that join COFOE each send a representative to the COFOE Board meetings, and participate in decisions about how to allocate COFOE’s slender resources. Recently, Unity08 joined the COFOE board. Other COFOE organization-members are the Constitution Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the Reform Party, the Socialist Party, the Working Families Party, and the Committee for a Unified Independent Party.