"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
5 November 2004Gearing up for 2008The bottom line on ballot access in this state is still "It takes too many signatures," and the resources that must be devoted to gathering those signatures are considerable. The obvious question, therefore, is "How many signatures would not be 'too many'?" One suggestion: one percent of the votes cast in the last general election, which would be a shade under 15,000. Still sounds like a lot, but getting a Presidential candidate on the 2004 ballot required over 37,000 signatures, so a one-percent threshold should certainly be easier to reach. My own thinking, right this minute, calls for a flat 10,000 signatures to gain party recognition, maybe half that for a Presidential candidate, though I'm willing to entertain other ideas. The hard part, of course, will be persuading the legislature, which is made up entirely of members of major parties, to go along with changes like this. how about this: since there are about 4,000 registered libertarians and they would have needed to get 9 times that number to register their candidate, make the dems and republicans register 9 times their number before putting their candidate on the ballot in 08 The requirement was 5,000 signatures from statehood up until 1974. Even then, Oklahoma still kept off important presidential candidates, such as Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 and Strom Thurmond in 1948. I'd prefer going back to 5,000, but 10,000 would not be unreasonable. Posted by: Chris at 5:54 PM on 5 November 2004Before we consider a final bargaining position for a minimum quota, we ought to at least examine the nature of the game. See Ballot Access Extortion at my site: http://www.robinsonforthecongress.com/ Posted by: D. Frank Robinson at 9:55 PM on 15 November 2004 |