Michigan Petition Fiasco Highlights Dysfunctional, Costly Ballot Access Laws

Andy CraigThe Michigan gubernatorial election is in turmoil after the state ’s Bureau of Elections determined that several Republican candidates submitted tens of thousands of invalid, fraudulent petition signatures. Thathas left many candidates, including the current frontrunner, short of the 15,000 signatures needed to appear on the primary ballot.This fiasco highlights America ’s problematic obsession with using high petitioning hurdles as barriers to ballot access. Unique among major democracies, many American states require thousands of signatures from eligible voters before a candidate can be placed on the ballot. InMichigan, which has especially severe requirements for statewide races, major party candidates for governor need 15,000 valid signatures. In practice, this means hiring professional petitioners to gather signatures by going door to door or approaching people on the street. The petitioning market can be lucrative, especially at times of peak demand. Rates of $4 or $5 per signature are not uncommon, and sometimes even higher. As several Michigan Republicans are now learning the hard way, that market is also rife with fraud, given the large cash incentives on the table and relatively low (but obviously not zero) risk of getting caught.Knocking opponents off the ballot by challenging their petitions is not a new phenomenon, either. In 1996, one Democratic state senate hopeful in Chicago successfully challenged the petitions of all three of his would-be oppon...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs