[EL] How low (high) can you go?/Ballot access fees

Mon Nov 18 07:53:12 PST 2013

Of course, to me the signature option is often a rather bogus alternative, because gathering signatures is often very costly. Nor is it clear that the ability to gather signatures makes one more likely to be a serious candidate than the ability to pay a filing fee. The distinction between fees and signatures doesn't really hold up - either can unduly limit candidate advancement to the ballot. In one of my favorite passages from one of my early articles, "Judicial Protection of Ballot Access Rights," 28 Harv. J. Legis. 167, 201, n. 173 (1991), I wrote:

In Storer, Justice White, writing for the Court, found that a requirement of 325,000 signatures gathered in 24 days was not an “impossible burden,” because “1000 canvassers could perform the task if each gathered 14 signers a day.” 415 U.S. at 740.<http://web2.westlaw.com/find/default.wl?mt=208&db=780&tc=-1&rp=%2ffind%2fdefault.wl&findtype=Y&ordoc=0101390680&serialnum=1974127154&vr=2.0&fn=_top&sv=Split&tf=-1&referencepositiontype=S&pbc=46BB841E&referenceposition=740&rs=WLW13.10> Justice White repeated this type of arithmetic in American Party, finding that 100 canvassers gathering four signatures a day for 55 days would meet the Texas requirement. 415 U.S. at 786.<http://web2.westlaw.com/find/default.wl?mt=208&db=780&tc=-1&rp=%2ffind%2fdefault.wl&findtype=Y&ordoc=0101390680&serialnum=1974127155&vr=2.0&fn=_top&sv=Split&tf=-1&referencepositiontype=S&pbc=46BB841E&referenceposition=786&rs=WLW13.10> Justice White's figures are not quite accurate because he did not allow for the fact that guaranteeing enough good signatures usually requires at least a twenty-five percent safety margin of “raw” signatures. Accepting Justice White's logic, however, one might just as well conclude that the statute challenged in Lubin posed no barrier because 1000 panhandlers collecting just three cents per day could obtain the necessary filing fee in 24 days; Bullock's $8,900 fee would have required 100 panhandlers to collect $1.62 each per day over 55 days.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: Brenda Wright [bwright at demos.org]
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 10:33 AM
To: Smith, Brad; Schultz, David A.; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: RE: [EL] How low (high) can you go?/Ballot access fees

Pennsylvania still had only option 1 until 2003, when the mandatory fee was struck down in Belitskus v. Pizzingrilli
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-3rd-circuit/1410638.html

I've wondered if there remain other laws like this on the books that haven't been challenged.

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Smith, Brad [BSmith at law.capital.edu]
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2013 10:50 PM
To: Schultz, David A.; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] How low (high) can you go?/Ballot access fees

Option (1) was declared unconstitutional, Lubin v. Panish, 415 US 709;

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Schultz, David A. [dschultz at hamline.edu]
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2013 7:47 PM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] How low (high) can you go?/Ballot access fees

Hi all:
What seems to be the threshold amount for a ballot access  fee to be before it is declared unconstitutional?

Two  scenarios:

1)  Fee only;  or
2)  Fee and with the alternative, signatures.

In general most jurisdictions have option two, but I wonder how many still have only option one.

I will take answers on or off-line.

Thank you.

--
David Schultz, Professor
Editor, Journal of Public Affairs Education (JPAE)
Hamline University
Department of Political Science
1536 Hewitt Ave
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St. Paul, Minnesota 55104
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Twitter:  @ProfDSchultz
FacultyRow SuperProfessor, 2012, 2013
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