OK: Columnist Calls for Ballot Access Reform

A column in the Oklahoma Daily calls for ballot access reform in the Sooner State:

Oklahoma has the worst ballot-access laws in the nation. To run for president as a third party requires a candidate to collect signatures equal to 5 percent of the number of votes cast in the last presidential/gubernatorial election. To run as an independent requires 3 percent which, although slightly lower, is still impossibly high.  Even under the best case scenario, a third-party candidate or independent attempting to meet the 3 percent signature threshold still has to collect as many as 44,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot. Taking into consideration many signatures end up being invalidated because the signatory is not a registered voter or puts wrong or illegible information, this signature requirement can, in practice, easily double. . . .

How do the Republicans and Democrats get on the ballot? So long as they can manage to draw 10 percent of the vote in every presidential and gubernatorial election, they do not have to collect a single signature. With third-party and independent candidates effectively barred from competing with them, something catastrophic would have to occur to prevent them from meeting this benchmark.  So, the system is rigged. Republicans and Democrats get automatic access to the ballot so long as they meet a fairly low level of electoral support and third parties are not even allowed to run unless they meet a nearly impossible signature requirement.  This is bad for democracy and bad for voter choice.