Changing Elections in Pennsylvania: The Voters' Choice Act

The Connection Between Ballot Access and Environmental Issues

Current restrictions in Pennsylvania law make it very difficult for independents and third-party candidates to get on the ballot in state and local elections.  Voters' choices are often restricted to electing the "lesser of two evils" instead of being able to vote for a candidate who best represents their views.

Environmental protection is not a primary issue in elections because the major parties do not focus on it.  Thus voters rarely have a chance to show their support for environmental initiatives in an electoral setting.

To make environmental issues more visible and important in electoral politics, we must convince sitting legislators to support greater ballot access and more voter choice.  By supporting candidates who favor greater ballot access, particularly in close races, the Fund can improve the choices voters have and bring environmental issues to the forefront.

The Fund needs your contribution to build the machinery and momentum to modify the existing ballot access law.

Pennsylvania's Restrictions on Voters' Choices

Pennsylvania has one of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the country.  Minor political parties and independent candidates have to collect many more voter signatures than Democrats and Republicans. For example, in 2006, statewide minor party candidates had to collect over 67,000 signatures.  The Democrats and Republicans only needed 2000.

In court cases challenging the signature petitions of third-party candidates, Pennsylvania judges have awarded litigation costs in excess of $80,000 to representatives of major parties.  These litigation costs are in addition to what minor party candidates would expend on their own lawyers.  As a result, many independent and minor party candidates have no choice but to withdraw from the race when their candidacy is challenged.

The Fund supports the Voter's Choice Act, which would allow a minor party to appear on the ballot if at least 0.05% of Pennsylvania voters (over 4,200 in 2010) registered for that party.  This bill would eliminate the need for minor parties to collect such a large number of signatures and the lengthy and wasteful court battles waged each election cycle over signature validity.

Major parties are so anxious to exclude third parties from the ballot that sitting legislators have even engaged in illegal conduct.  One former legislator and several Democratic staffers were convicted last year of having Pennsylvania governmental employees do political work on taxpayer time in what became known as Bonusgate.  A "veritable army" of state employees was used to work on signature challenges to Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.  An even greater effort was used to exclude Carl Romanelli who had filed almost 199,000 signatures.  A Delaware County ward leader recently plead guilty to falsifying petition signatures in 2010.

A 2008 grand jury report on campaign abuse noted how burdensome the signature gathering process is.  Legal challenges often result in the exclusion of valid signatures because the current rules are so abstruse.  Judges overwhelmed by the requirement of reviewing tens of thousands of signatures have tended to side with major parties merely to get such cases off their dockets.

Delaware already has a law very similar to the Voters' Choice Act. Unfortunately, major political parties in Pennsylvania have been unwilling to support this legislation.  The Fund -- along with the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition -- is pressing for passage of the Voters' Choice Act.

The Fund wants to increase ballot access so that more candidates with strong environmental commitments will be elected. Corporations and their lobbyists have significant access to legislators because of the campaign contributions they make.  Their contributions open the door to influencing legislators when they draft new legislation, amend existing laws, and create annual state budgets.

Ultimately, it is legislators who decide whether Pennsylvania's natural resources will be conserved for future generations or be polluted for short-term gain.  They decide how much funding will go to build highways and how much to public transit infrastructure.  They determine to what extent drilling in the Marcellus Shale will be regulated and taxed to compensate Pennsylvanians for resulting harm to publicly-owned water resources.  We need legislators who will make the right decisions for all Pennsylvanians and we can only get them if we have a chance to vote for them.

Support the Fund's efforts to improve your choice in future elections by making a contribution today.