" Pennsylvania--20601
" Illinois--25,000
" Arizona--27000
Even the
number of signatures is misleading as election officials check the validity of
signatures, so the rejection rate can be
as high as from 15-50 percent of the signatures. The number of possible
errors is huge, for example: (1) Address on signature form does not match voter
registration records if person signing petition moved and forgot to inform
voter registrar of the move; (2) Person signing petition thought they were
registered when they were not. So the actual number of signatures needed is much
higher than the official number listed above.
States with Early Deadline for signatures
" California--January
3, 2012 (Took a law suit by ACLU to overturn it, but delayed signature
gathering while lawsuit was in progress. The high number of signatures remained.
" Texas -Deadline
was changed multiple times due to federal redistricting lawsuit. Court ended up
moving the precinct conventions for the Democratic and Republican parties, to
June which previously had marked the date when you could begin gathering
signatures, but left our date as March 14, 2012, which was too late to hold our
precinct conventions. So the Justice party had to be completed with its
signature by the time most voters even knew there was going to be a primary
election. The whole idea that you had to wait to begin signatures seems
ridiculous. Plus, existing parties don't have to certify their candidates until
after their national conventions in August September.
Other
factors which make it difficult for new parties to get on the ballot.
" In half the
states there is no procedure for a new political party to get on the ballot the
first year. In most of these states, the Presidential candidate for a new party
has to run as an independent, receive a certain percentage of votes of those
who vote in election in order to qualify for the candidate's party to appear on
the ballot. If the candidate doesn't receive enough votes, the candidate's
party must go through the same process next election.
" In every state, the independent candidate
must bear the cost of printing out signature forms and recruiting volunteers to
go around the state and gather signatures. It takes time to recruit volunteers,
which is problem because the deadlines for turning in the signatures are coming
due at different times. So a national campaign like Rocky Anderson's campaign
has to shift resources around and determine which states to focus on first,
which usually means focusing on the states with the least restrictive ballot
access requirements. So if you don't have the resources to mount a big push in
the "hard" states, then you will not be on the ballot in some of the
states with the most popular and electoral votes.
" The
election administration in all 50 states is administered by a Secretary of
State in control of either the Democratic or Republican parties. While the
clerks or low-level officials in the office may try to do their jobs, the
policies in all 50 states at the highest levels of election administration is
to keep competition from new parties and candidates to a minimum.
" In some states, the petitions must include
only the signatures from the same county. So, if the signature gatherers set up
a mall where people from multiple counties are shopping, they would have to
keep multiple petitions, one for each county they are likely to encounter.
" Also, in addition to partisan Secretary of
States challenging petitions, existing political parties can challenge the
signatures.
"As mentioned on our show, in Pennsylvania if
a candidate's signatures are challenged by another party, then the candidates
can be held personally liable. In 2008, Democrats challenged Ralph Nader's
signatures in Pennsylvania and won a personal judgment against Ralph Nader and
his V.P. candidate, where the two candidates were forced to pay a total of
$80.000 out of their own bank accounts. This year, the Republicans challenged
the signatures of the Libertarian and Constitution parties in Pennsylvania. The
Constitution party candidate decided to end his ballot access effort in
Pennsylvania because of his fear of a personal judgment against him" (Radio
show 9/17/2012).
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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