Petitions/Getting on the ballot

[Beagle]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.  In PA, for most local offices you need 10 signatures.  For State Representative, you need 300, for county-wide offices you need 250, and for State Senate you need 500 (all signatures must be from registered members of your party, and have to be completed in a specific and somewhat confusing way). Most candidates file 2-3x the amount to try and prevent legal challenges, which is a whole other level of chaos.

In my experience, getting petition signatures is harder and harder, especially in suburban and rural areas where the houses are father apart.  I spent 4 hours knocking in a relatively populated area (houses close together) and ended up with 15 signatures. People don't answer their doors and with the popularity of the Ring/Nest doorbells, people don't answer even when they're home.  I don't see it getting better, but I don't know if/how the system can be changed with the times. 

How does getting on the ballot work in your state?  Do you get people knocking on your door to sign petitions?  Do you think the system needs to change? 

[georgeglass]

The last petition I signed was for a friend of a friend who was running for office. My friend brought the petition to work and asked people she presumed to be like-minded. I imagine there are many ways that this could be complicated (e.g., work rules), but by spreading the load among friends who got signatures, I don't think it was very hard. I think going to meetings for advocacy groups you support or working with friends might be easier. Door to door is definitely hard and getting harder, but I'd be wary of lowering the bar.

[penguingrrl]

I know in NJ candidates often bring petitions around to the various democratic committee and club meetings plus the specialized action groups (women, disabilities caucus, etc) and ask that people spread the word among known people in their circle rather than attempting door to door canvassing for it. There are also “petition signing parties” that basically get whatever democrats can be there in the same room and all announced candidates are invited to come.

When I ran for office I had one week from committing to run to get 50 signatures (I was approached very late) and had no trouble getting to people to have them sign it. I don’t think it’s unfair to require these signatures and also don’t feel the burden is too high, it just requires having an organization to work with that’s familiar with the process. I do think going door to door is very inefficient for this purpose.

[seeyalater52]

Feb 14, 2020 8:40:39 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I know in NJ candidates often bring petitions around to the various democratic committee and club meetings plus the specialized action groups (women, disabilities caucus, etc) and ask that people spread the word among known people in their circle rather than attempting door to door canvassing for it. There are also “petition signing parties” that basically get whatever democrats can be there in the same room and all announced candidates are invited to come.

When I ran for office I had one week from committing to run to get 50 signatures (I was approached very late) and had no trouble getting to people to have them sign it. I don’t think it’s unfair to require these signatures and also don’t feel the burden is too high, it just requires having an organization to work with that’s familiar with the process. I do think going door to door is very inefficient for this purpose.

I came in here to say exactly this, but you covered it. There needs to be some standard and honestly if a candidate cannot meet a relatively low signature threshold to quality they aren’t capable of running a campaign to fairly be elected to the position.

Going door to door for qualification signatures is not something I’ve ever seen done for smaller races and seems extremely inefficient.

[nessness]

I've never had any knock on my door to sign a petition - they mostly hang out outside of grocery stores and try to catch people going in or out.

California allows people to be paid to collect signatures, which I wish they wouldn't, as it makes it easier for big corporations to get propositions that benefit them on the ballot.

[eport]

I had to get a 50 minimum to run for Library Board (I turned in 75 as any signature could get challenged, this has not happened for Library board in the past 20 years but still could. For state level offices, it is suggested that you get at least double, if not triple the min. amount required). An interesting rule, the Library actually banned getting signatures at the Library for any office, no tables, no approaching people at tables, etc. It apparently got to the point that so many people were requesting tables/asking people that people were complaining so the Library set up a policy that the Library is non partisan and no one can collect signatures there.

I started with the easiest. I was on the Friends of the Library board so I asked the board/fellow volunteers to sign (a staff member walked into the meeting and she was like, I see that and am totally signing for you). I'm in a local mothers' club and asked people to sign before/after a meeting (another member was running for parks board so I wasn't the only one. To keep out tax exempt status, this could not happen during the meeting but before/after is totally ok). This was the vast majority. I did do some door to door for the neighbors on my cul-de-sac more as an FYI I was running (they all signed). Pretty much everyone was like "Good for you for deciding to run for office, I'll sign". I think some of this was that it was a city-wide office and non partisan (city offices don't have the option to list the party). I am pretty much willing to sign for anyone (except a couple of crazies) who is willing to take a shot. Doesn't mean I will vote for them, but I feel like most people deserve a chance on the ballot. More people are running-there were 7 of us running for 3 open spots for the Library Board, 6 people for 3 slots on school board, and most city council offices were contested (rare.)

I know someone running for state house (also in the mothers' club, we are slowly working our through offices and taking control lol-i'm on Library board, a recent member is on parks board, another alum members' husband is on school board and a former member just got appointed to fill a city council seat when the official moved out of town). At her official campaign kickoff event, Maura's signature list was there but lots of fellow Dems running also came to show support and they brought their own signature lists. I signed as many as I could.

Note on signatures. Every page of 10 signatures we got had to be notarized with the signature of the person who collected them. Our local library has free notary services. If you should need one for your paperwork, please consider using the Library.

[froggy76]

I'm in PA too. We hold petition parties and have petitions available at democratic events like meetings and candidate meet-and-greets. Knocking on doors for signatures is really hard.

I'm a dem committeeperson in a suburban precinct and I needed 10 signatures from dems in my precinct to get on the ballot for my position. My precinct leans republican but I walked my neighborhood (where houses are very spread out) only for lots of people to sit in their living rooms and not answer the door. I totally get it because I avoid answering the door too, but I wanted to scream at the one couple because I could see them sitting in there and their two signatures would have made my day and my feet were killing me!!!

[brooklyn]

Candidates aren’t allowed to go door to door in my apartment complex. Here they stand on street corners and plead with passing pedestrians to sign.

[dale]

I've had plenty of local politicians come to my door. They usually come in a group of 3-4 who are running on the same line so it makes things easy. I also see them outside of the supermarket, but even though it's just 5 minutes from my house it's a different town so I can't sign there.

[sillygoosegirl]

It appears to be 2% of the number of votes cast in the previous relevant primary election in Oregon. Or for a ballot initiative, 6% of the number of votes cast most recently for governor, which is over 100,000 signatures.

I don't think anyone has ever come to my door in the suburbs with a petition, but people gather signatures near transit centers, at food truck pods, and on busy street corners down town.

[InBetweenDays]

Seattle implemented a Democracy Voucher program a few years ago for local candidates. So candidates need to meet a threshold for a certain number of combined vouchers and signatures (I believe it can be all signatures, all vouchers, or a combination of both). With our last city council race we had one candidate come to our door.

We never have people come to the door for signatures for getting initiatives/referendums on the ballot. Those are usually gathered at events (fairs, farmer's markets), outside of grocery stores, on street corners, etc.

Seattle already has so many initiatives and referendums on the ballot each year. And then some of them are always overturned by the courts. Great for getting folks involved in local politics, but it can also it very difficult to make forward progress on anything. I can't imagine making the signature process easier.

[aurora]

We get a lot of ballot initiatives. I usually see the signature collectors outside of stores, not going door-to-door.