AL: Newspaper Calls for Open Ballot

The Birmingham News editorial board is calling on Alabama residents to demand legislators ease ballot access restrictions:

DO YOU VOTE? Do you care? If you vote and care, get in touch with your House member (locate your state representative here) and tell him (or her) to support state Rep. Cam Ward's bill to make Alabama's ballot more accessible for independent candidates and third parties.

It's practically impossible for an independent candidate to get on the ballot in Alabama, and that's exactly what Democrats and Republicans want. They joined together in 1995 to pass a draconian ballot access bill that raised from 1 percent to 3 percent the number of signatures of qualified voters in the last race for governor that independent candidates would have to get before being put on the ballot. Of course, what these selfish, incumbent-protecting lawmakers were doing was taking care of themselves.

With voter frustration seemingly growing, you'd think more choices at election time would be a good thing. Well, it is for voters, but not lawmakers. Legislators are scared to death, so much so that a committee voted against Ward's bill on Wednesday. Ward promises to bring it up again, when all the committee members are present, and let's hope he does. What we can do is tell our legislators we want an open ballot in Alabama. Since it's an election year, we should demand it so we have some choices, instead of the same, old, failed incumbents election after election after election.