The Connecticut Government Administration and Election Committee will hold a hearing on HB 6436 on February 18 at 9:30 a.m. It lowers the number of signatures for statewide minor party and independent candidates from 7,500 signatures, to 1,000 signatures. Also it specifies that the Secretary of State’s office will check signatures. Under current law, town clerks check them, using varying standards. The Secretary of State’s office might not have been able to do that work in the past, but nowadays every state is required by federal law to have a centralized list of registered voters.

All of the nationally-organized minor parties that petitioned for president in Connecticut in 2008 (Green, Constitution, Libertarian) failed to get on the ballot. The only statewide petition that succeeded was Ralph Nader’s petition. Thanks to Andy Rule for this news.