Bill would make it easier for independent candidates to qualify for Alabama's ballot

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

THE ISSUE: A bill would cut in half the number of signatures independent candidates would need to qualify for office.

Could it be? Is there really a serious effort to loosen up Alabama's ridiculously tight ballot-access rules?

Important, if true, and it's about time, too. Don't count your signatures before they're certified, though.

The state's Draconian ballot-access law is the nefarious deed of both Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature. They passed the bill in 1995 on a bipartisan vote and sent it to Republican Gov. Fob James, who eagerly signed it.

In essence, the new law assured Democrats and Republicans they wouldn't have any pesky third-party or independent candidates running against them in state elections.

It's not as if the previous rules encouraged a lot of independents to run. Before 1995, a candidate needed the signatures of qualified voters equal to 1 percent of Alabamians who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election. For a statewide race, that meant 1 percent of the votes statewide; for a county or district race, that meant 1 percent of the votes cast in that district or county.

Even at that level, independent and third-party candidates weren't flooding Alabama's ballots. But the Legislature raised the limit from 1 percent to 3 percent, making it practically impossible for an independent candidate to get qualified. As an example, for an independent to run for governor in 2010, he or she would need to collect at least 37,500 verifiable signatures from qualified voters. That means the candidate would likely have to get 20 percent to 30 percent more signatures to make certain his petition contained enough qualified voters who could be certified.

At least one Alabama lawmaker, state Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, understands that's a wrong-headed restriction and has introduced a bill to drop the 3 percent level to 1½ percent for a statewide race (Ward's original version of the bill lowers county and district elections to 1½ percent as well, but a pesky substitute waiting in the wings keeps the level at 3 percent for those races, surely so the hurdle is that much higher for independent candidates who might want to run for the Legislature).

Even though Ward's bill cuts in half the threshold needed for an independent candidate to get on the ballot, the requirement still is pretty high. In Minnesota, a candidates needs only 2,000 signatures to get on a statewide ballot. Under Ward's bill, an independent still would need more than 18,000 qualified voters to sign a petition. Ward should lower the requirement even more.

Still, give Ward credit for taking on this issue. After the Legislature raised the floor from 1 percent to 3 percent in 1995, James promised he'd push for a revision. It's no surprise that never happened, nor has it in any governor's term since.

Alabama's ballots should be open to all qualified candidates, not just Republicans and Democrats.