As was previously stated, our party drafted Senate Bill 733 to allow a party’s candidate for president to maintain a party’s ballot access if they receive 1% of the vote statewide. Currently, qualification only occurs with candidates for Governor.
SB 733 overwhelmingly passed the Senate, with 24 out of 34 Senators voting in favor.
Our bill has quad-partisan support. Senators Ihlenfeld (D) and Trump (R) introduced the legislation, in addition with support from the Libertarian Party.
Our bill assists in offering uniformity to our nation’s ballot access standards. Bordering States of Maryland and Ohio allow candidates for President, in addition to Governor, to qualify for ballot access. Kentucky and Virginia allow other statewide offices to qualify, however objectively speaking, it is a lower standard than the office of President.
Our bill offers members of political parties a choice in which top-ticket elections they want their respective party to contest. Currently, minor parties are forced to run a candidate for Governor.
Our bill:
➢ adds “President or” before “Governor” in §3-1-8. It is a two-word change.
➢ does not affect minor parties’ ability to acquire ballot access via petitioning.
➢ does not affect major parties whose gubernatorial candidate obtained ≥10%.
➢ does not directly affect state or local government finances.
Tell Your Delegate to Support Common Sense Ballot Access Reform!
Speaker of the House: Roger Hanshaw
Speaker Pro Tempore: Daryl Cowles
Majority Leader: Amy Summers
Assistant Majority Leader: Kayla Kessinger
Majority Whip: Paul Espinosa
Assistant Majority Whips: Martin Atkinson III, Scott Cadle, Caleb Hanna, John Hardy, Dean Jeffries, John Mandt, Matthew Rohrbach
Minority Leader: Tim Miley
Minority Whip: Mike Caputo
Assistant Minority Whips: Sean Hornbuckle, David Pethtel, Isaac Sponaugle, Randy Swartzmiller, Lisa Zukoff
