Reform Ballot Access

Virginia has some funny rules concerning ballot access.  By law, there can only be 2 parties in the state, the Democrats and the Republicans.  All other "parties" running candidates have to get the each candidate on the ballot separately with signatures.  Each "party" must declare a Political Action Committee (PAC) to accept and spend donations.  This is certainly skewed to the two party system.  Perhaps that should be our first promise as 3rd party members - change this situation.

This was inspired by the following post:  Call to Reform Ballot Access

But the barriers faced by members of the Big Two are nothing compared to those faced by minor party and independent candidates, due to the fact that ballot access laws are generally structured to favor established political parties. In some states, minor party and independent petitioners are handcuffed by laws that prohibit people who have either voted in a party’s primary or registered as party member from signing ballot petitions. Democrats and Republicans have done such an effective job gaming the system against minor parties that no third party since 1920 has been able to place candidates on the ballot in half or more of congressional races in any given election cycle.

The ballot access barrier isn't the only tool that the Republican/Democratic duopoly has used to maintain its hold on political power, but it has been one of the most important and effective tools in their arsenal. And their control over the workings of the American political system has had an observable degrading effect on democracy in this country: what was once a relatively robust political system with viable minor parties has devolved into a dysfunctional mess plagued by low voter turnout, low turnover, and gridlock.