Representative Justin Amash (R- MIch.) introduced bill HR 1681 earlier this month. The bill description sates, "To require States to impose the same ballot access rules on all candidates in a general congressional election held in the State without regard to whether or not the candidates are nominees of a political party..." Currently, candidates for the Republican and Democratic parties get a myriad of advantages over other candidates in most states. In many states, no candidates but those of the Republican and Democratic party have a reasonable chance of even getting their name listed on the ballot. For example, no third party candidate has appeared on the ballot for U.S. House of Representatives in Georgia since its current ballot access laws were passed in 1943.
Hopefully this bill will pass and get rid of "two largest" laws that exist across the country. "Two largest" laws are always which state that candidates of the two largest parties, as determined by voter registration or prior election performance, get all sorts of advantages over other candidates. These range from ability to put future candidates on the ballot or preferential placement on the ballot to public funding.
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on House Administration. The bill can be tracked here:
H.R.1681: To require States to impose the same ballot access rules on all candidates
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