Indiana State Senator Sue Landske said recently that the issue of ballot access may perhaps be added to the agenda for the Summer Study Committee, when it considers various election law changes. Indiana ballot access is so severe, no statewide minor party or independent candidate petition has succeeded since 2000, when Pat Buchanan (who had $16,000,000 in taxpayer funds, since he was the nominee of the Reform Party, which had polled over 5% in 1996), did the Indiana petition.
Indiana is one of only 5 states in which Ralph Nader has never been on the ballot. Indiana currently requires over 32,000 valid signatures, due by the end of June of an election year. Thanks to Doug Gaking for this news.
Is this due to the 2 “major” political parties do not want to share campaign finance bribes?
No. It’s because the two major parties don’t want to face more parties on Election Day. They passed the tougher ballot access laws in 1986 only because the American Party was already on the ballot and the Libertarian Party was almost able to get on the ballot.
Actually, Indiana quadrupled its petition requirement in a bill that passed in 1980. But it didn’t go into effect until 1983. The Libertarian and American Parties were both on the ballot under the old law, but the 1980 bill now only quadrupled the number of signatures, it also quadrupled the number of votes needed for a party to remain on, although the vote increase didn’t take effect until 1987. As a result, Indiana was one of only 4 states in which Ron Paul wasn’t on the 1988 ballot as the Libertarian presidential nominee.
Actually, in Indiana, to be on the ballot a candidate must collect 2% of the total number of votes cast for the office of Secretary of State the last time that office was elected. To have ballot access for the years following that election, a party must earn 2% of the vote for the office of Secretary of State. Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians all have automatic ballot access in Indiana.