From Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:
National Public Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has this story about the pending bill in the legislature to improve ballot access. The story does not mention that the bill, SB 495, also eases petitioning for independent candidates.
From the article cited, written by Mark Nootbaar:
It took just 500 write-in votes for lifelong Democrats Chelsa Wagner and John Weinstein to get their names on the November ballots as Republicans, but it will take 2,328 signatures if a third-party candidate wants to have the same opportunity.
“The deck is stacked against third parties,” said David Hughes, Green Party of Allegheny County Executive Committee member. “The laws are written by the Republicans and the Democrats to keep out threats or competition.”
The Republican Party in Allegheny County did not put up candidates for any of the county row offices, but registered Republicans wrote in John Weinstein’s name 803 times for County Treasurer and Chelsa Wagner’s name 970 times for County Controller. Both Weinstein and Wagner also received the Democratic nomination for the same seats — Weinstein ran unopposed and Wagner defeated Mark Patrick Flaherty — virtually assuring a win in November.
“The interest of the voters, which is what elections are supposed to be about, is in having multiple candidates and in some cases a third-party candidate is the only way to do that,” said Dave Eckert, Vote Allegheny Vice President.
The Libertarian Party is the only political party other than the Republicans and the Democrats currently recognized by the state. For a candidate from any other party to get on the November general election ballot, they must submit signatures totaling 2 percent of the total number of votes received by the top vote getter for a similar office in the most recent election.