WESA-FM in Pittsburgh ran a news story on 6/9 about the difficult ballot access requirements imposed on alternative political parties in Pennsylvania. The requirements for Democratic and Republican candidates are a cakewalk in comparison.
In regularly-scheduled elections, parties that have 15% or more of the registered voters – a standard that only the Democratic and Republican Parties have been able to meet – need to collect only a modest number of signatures. For example, they need just 2,000 signatures if running for Governor. In contrast, the 2014 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate needed to collect 16,639 signatures to appear on the ballot.
Note there are some errors in the article. The Libertarian Party is not a recognized party in the state. Further, if a candidate gets 2% in a race, the party is able to petition using the major party standards in that jurisdiction, but only in a special election.
