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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is proposing tighter rules on paid petitioners in Michigan, according to this article (and thank you to Jim Fulner for bringing this to BAN’s attention):
Here’s something that’s not mentioned in the article: the signature requirements are simply too damn high! If they were lower, professional petitioners might not be needed.
According to Ballotpedia, statewide petitions to get on a Primary ballot for a Major Party in Michigan require 15,000 signatures of registered voters, meaning probably at least 22,500 signatures need to be turned in to the state for verification.
This is reminiscent of the Republican Party primary for President in Virginia in 2012. There was a veritable slew of candidates:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Republican_Party_presidential_primaries
To get on the Virginia GOP Presidential Primary ballot, the requirement was 10,000 valid signatures of registered voters in the state, with at least 400 from each of the Commonwealth’s 11 congressional districts.
That requirement was so difficult that only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul qualified for the 2012 Virginia GOP Presidential Primary. It was an embarrassment for the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Republican Party.
After that, petitioning requirements were cut in half to 5,000 valid signatures, and at least 200 from each congressional district. Fortunately, the petitioning requirement was reduced to that for Independent and Third Party candidates, as well.
Any reform in Michigan should include reduced petition signature requirements for all candidates for public office.
On June 26, 2023, Robert Pitman, a US District Court Judge in the Western District of Texas, mostly granted relief requested by Plaintiffs and enjoined enforcement of Texas’s ballot access requirements insofar as they require use of paper nomination petitions. Electronic signatures may now be used in the Texas petitioning process.
Judge Pitman’s Orders:
LPAR Chair Michael Pakko reports the petition drive now has 6,489 signatures. 10,000 valid signatures are needed by February 13, 2024 to return the Libertarian Party to the ballot in Arkansas in 2024 for all partisan elections in the state. That means that the petition drive is now half completed or nearly half completed.
On June 26, the Maine House passed LD 769 by 104-35. It eases the definition of a qualified party. Current law says it is a group that has 5,000 registrants (if it is a new party), but if it has been on the ballot at least four years then it must have 10,000 registrants.
The bill makes the definition simpler. It says a qualified party is one with 5,000 registrants, whether it is new or old.
June 28 Update: According to an office of the Maine legislature, this legislation will be considered by the Maine Senate sometime yet this year, at a currently unknown date.