The Democrats and the Republicans fight each other intensely to obtain and retain political power. However, they happily cooperate to minimize any “outside” competition. They justify artificially high ballot access hurdles for others in the name of limiting “ballot clutter.” Eliminating ballot clutter for them means eliminating their competition, but for voters, it means eliminating their choices. This is yet another example of how politicians in power have jimmied the functioning of elections to make it easier for them to remain in power. Not only do onerous requirements keep some candidates off the ballot, but they also sap the limited time and resources of those who do manage to qualify, making it more difficult for them to mount an effective campaign.
The Pennsylvania Constitution says that “Elections shall be free and equal.” However, Pennsylvania law establishes a caste system of political parties with differing requirements to get candidates onto the general election ballot. Independents or candidates of any party other than D or R must gather many times the number of nominating signatures — sometimes more than 67,000 for a gubernatorial candidate. This is very far from meeting the “free and equal” requirement! In fact, a federal court agreed in 2012 that PA ballot access requirements were unconstitutional and ordered the General Assembly to remedy the problems. The court ordered temporary lower limits that provide some relief. The General Assembly has done absolutely nothing and we are still operating under the court order fourteen years later!
The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition (PBAC), whose members include the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Constitution Party and others, has proposed a comprehensive and very good solution called the Political Party Equality Act. Here are its provisions:
- Boil any complex political party classifications down to just one: Qualified Political party. Any political party having at least 0.05% of statewide voter registration and having their rules on file with the state’s Secretary of State is a Qualified Political Party. Qualified Political Parties are entitled to nominate candidates in accordance with their own procedures and entirely at their own expense. (There would currently be four Qualified Parties: Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, and Green).
- Independents (candidates who are not affiliated with a Qualified Political Party) would need to collect the number of signatures as currently specified by law in 25 CS 2872.1 (which specifies the number of signatures Ds and Rs must gather). The time window for collecting those signatures should be ample. All signatures would be validated by the county or state agency that receives them, not by private organizations or individuals as is now the case.
Note that this straightforward legislation would properly resolve the open primaries debate. Many argue that, since all taxpayers pay for primary elections, they should be open to those who are neither Republicans nor Democrats. This is backward. Primary elections are the nominating process of private political organizations. Allowing non-members to vote is ridiculous, just as it would be ridiculous to allow non-citizens to vote in US elections! The correct solution is to not force taxpayers to pay for primary elections. No taxpayer money should ever go to a private political organization! If the Ds and Rs want to nominate their candidates in primary elections, then they should pay for those elections.