PA: Independent Fights Ballot Access Bureaucracy

From the Republican Herald:

An independent Congressional candidate has filed an open records appeal after the Pennsylvania Department of State said it does not keep a list of political candidates who requested nominating petitions. "The basic attitude is that independent candidates aren't worth the trouble of keeping track of," Dennis Baylor, Hamburg, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.  Baylor, who is active in government reform organizations, said he wants to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 17th District, a field that is already crowded.

Baylor wants to run as part of the No-Party Party of Pennsylvania, which he formed in December 2008 during a failed run for the state Senate. It takes about 4,000 signatures to get on the Congressional ballot for independent candidates, Baylor said. He wanted to ease the burden by getting in touch with other independents to share nominating petitions and collect signatures together.