Six States Have a Republican-Democratic Ballot Monopoly for All Congressional Elections

Minor party and/or independent candidates for Congress will appear on the ballot in 44 states this November. The states in which there will be no such candidates are Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Washington.

In Hawaii, Nebraska, and South Dakota, there are ballot-qualified minor parties who could have run someone without a great deal of effort, but no one chose to run.

In Washington, the top-two primary system produced only Democrats and Republicans on the ballot for Congress. In Alabama and Georgia, the petition requirements are so severe that no one outside the two major parties ran.


Comments

Six States Have a Republican-Democratic Ballot Monopoly for All Congressional Elections — 7 Comments

  1. #3, Oklahoma has extremely easy procedures for independent candidates for all office except president, and it always has. There are independent candidates for Congress in all districts this year.

  2. Interesting to note how even though California also has the top two system, independents in 4 congressional races managed to survive the primary nonsense and make it on the ballot for the general election.

  3. #5, in three of those races, there were no candidates running from one of the two major parties. In races like that, it is not so difficult for independent candidates to place second. In the fourth race, there was one Republican as well as the Democratic incumbent, Congressman Waxman. But the “independent” had been a registered Republican until late 2011, has spent approximately $1,500,000 (more than Congressman Waxman has spent) and has been endorsed by former Republican Party governors, presidential nominees, and state party Republican chairmen. He is not a true independent and if he is elected, it seems extremely likely he will vote for John Boehner for Speaker.

  4. The CP of South Dakota did run a candidate for the US House and he could not get on the ballot for the same reason that the gubernatorial candidate did not succeed….not enough petitions.

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