This article may not make it clear, but Pennsylvania
has 5 parties that meet the definition of "party"
(i.e., a group that polled 2% for one of its statewide
nominees in the last election)...Democratic,
Republican, Libertarian, Green and Constitution.  But
another Pa. law says a party with registration
membership under 15% (which would be 1,212,000
members) is treated as though it weren't qualified,
for ballot access purposes.  If the Pennsylvania law
were in effect in Utah, the Democrats wouldn't be on
automatically in Utah; if the Pennsylvania law were in
effect in D.C. or Massachusetts, the Republicans
wouldn't be on automatically.

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/15008024.htm

Third-party candidates seek easier path to ballot
MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - The state's smaller political parties
pressed their fight
for easier ballot access Monday, arguing in federal
appeals court that
they are held to stricter standards than Democrats
or Republicans.

Under a formula in Pennsylvania law, minor-party
candidates for statewide
office must gather 67,000 signatures to get on the
fall ballot this year.

The statute accords them different treatment than
that granted to
major-party candidates, who make it on the ballot
after winning their
party's primary, lawyer Sam Stretton argued. He
called the disparate
treatment unconstitutional.

"It's not about winning, it's the injection of new
ideas into the
political process, and new viewpoints," Stretton
said after the court
session. "If you don't have a vehicle to get these
candidates and these
viewpoints on the ballot, then you lose that."

Stretton - arguing for the Green, Libertarian and
Constitution parties -
said the statute sets them up for failure.

With state registration rolls that range from about
3,000 for the
Constitution Party to 34,000 for the Libertarian
Party, the plaintiffs
would have to spend considerable sums to gather
67,000 signatures,
Stretton said.

And if they fail to get candidates on the ballot,
the parties are unlikely
to get the 2 percent support in a statewide race
they need to retain their
minor party status in the next election cycle, he
said.

At least one judge, Senior 3rd U.S. Circuit Judge
Ruggero J. Aldisert,
seemed sympathetic.

"I see this as a very, very serious case," Aldisert
said. "We have
qualified parties ... that met the (2 percent) test,
and now they can't
get on the ballot."

However, he noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had
upheld an even tougher
Georgia law that makes minor-party candidates gather
signatures equal to 5
percent of all registered voters. Stretton pointed
out that parties in
that state do not have to first meet a qualifying
test.

The panel, which also included 3rd U.S. Circuit
Judges Jane R. Roth and D.
Brooks Smith, pledged to rule quickly, noting the
Aug. 1 deadline for the
candidates to gather signatures in Pennsylvania.

No minor-party candidate has won a statewide office
in at least a decade.

The plaintiffs are appealing an April ruling by U.S.
District Judge John
E. Jones III, who said the law may be unwise but is
not unconstitutional.

"We share plaintiffs' concerns about the need for
prospective candidates
to expend ever-increasing amounts of money and how
that colors the
political process," Jones wrote, urging the
Legislature to revisit the
issue.

Lawyer Howard Hopkirk of the state Attorney
General's Office argued that
the signature requirements are needed to keep the
ballot streamlined and
avoid voter confusion.

"The primary reason (for it) is to prevent ballot
clutter," Hopkirk said
Monday.

More than 7 million of the state's approximately 8
million registered
voters are aligned with the Republican or Democratic
parties, according to
Jones' ruling.

Their candidates for governor and U.S. Senate needed
2,000 signatures to
make it onto this year's primary ballot.

But the signature requirement for minor parties is 2
percent of the
ballots cast for the largest vote-getter in the last
statewide election
race, which was Treasurer Bob Casey's record of
nearly 3.4 million votes
in 2004.

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