Over at Beyond the Trestle, Martin has weighed in on my post about the proposed ballot access legislation. We both agree that Georgia's ballot access are out of date and need to be reformed to allow easier access for third parties and independents to offer Georgians more choices at the ballot.

Sen. David Shafer and I have discussed this issue off and on for the last three years, but as far as I know, no one was given a head's up that this was going to be introduced.

Martin assumes that I would support the 45% threshold for a candidate to win an election. I don't, but it's fair assumption to make. When legislation was introduced in 2007 to go back to the 45%, I wrote against it because I believe it is incumbent protection. It's really not too much to ask that our representatives win a majority. It gives a sense of legitimacy to their victory.

Martin says, "If we pass this and don't rescind the other, get ready for extra innings in just about every significant election." Not really won't be all that different from how elections are now. The only way that would be an issue is if more third parties were able to obtain a ballot line, which would still require signatures from 1% of registered voters, and only the Libertarian Party has been able to accomplish that.

I like the 50% plus one standard that we have now. I am however, an advocate of Instant Runoff Voting, which would avoid costly runoffs that are generally met by an uninterested public.