For those of you who don't know, Georgia has some of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the United States. According to Ballot Access News, the laws were passed in 1943 to keep the Communist Party off the ballot.

According to Georgia Code (§ 21-2-170), in order to get on the ballot a candidate must turn in petitions equaling 5 percent of the registered voters from the district he plans to run in. If a candidate plans to run statewide, he must get signatures from 1 percent of registered voters in the state. It's something most people aren't even aware of and when asked to sign many react by saying, "This is America, you shouldn't have to do this."

The 1 percent rule also applies to parties attempting to get their candidates name on the ballot, and if they do get a line on the ballot, they are still not a "party" as defined by Georgia law, they are a "political body" and they receive 1 percent of the registered vote in any statewide race to maintain that status. In order to receive an automatic ballot line for all candidate and party status, a candidate for governor or president must receive 20 percent of the popular vote in a general election.

The Libertarian Party is the only third party that has been able to obtain political body status in Georgia. The Constitution Party and Green Party have little to no presence in the state.

If you're running statewide, you'll need roughly 53,000 signatures (going by figures from 11/08). If you're running for Congress, and I'll use the Third Congressional District for this example, you'll need roughly 24,000 signatures. Keep in mind that each of these signatures must be validated by the Georgia Secretary of State's office, so you need a buffer of several thousand signatures, just in case they toss out signatures.

It's quite a tedious task, which is why you don't see anyone running for Congress as a third party candidate in Georgia. In fact, no third party or independent candidate has run for Congress in Georgia since 1964 (excluding special elections). It's also why only well-funded (Ross Perot) or well-known (Pat Buchanan) independent candidates have been able to qualify for president in our state.

State Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) has proposed legislation, SB 359, would give political bodies, such as the Libertarian Party, a ballot line for statewide and down ticket races (local and legislative) provided they can maintain the 1 percent of registered voters requirement for statewide races.

The legislation would also allow for political bodies to endorse a major party candidate running for public office. This is known as electoral fusion. Several states use a form of it, the most well known being New York. For example, the Conservative Party in the state has endorsed Republican Party candidates often. Shafer's bill would allow basically the same thing.

It's a step in the right direction. I hope the state legislature and Secretary of State Brian Kemp get behind this bill as a fairer means of ballot access.