Georgians cannot run as a candidate for a partisan office in any standard election unless they circulate ballot access petitions or run as a Democrat or Republican.  Today Georgia currently requires roughly 20,000 signatures of registered voters for an independent candidate to place their name on the ballot for a U.S Congressional race, and roughly 60,000 signatures for a statewide race.

Georgia has the most restrictive petitioning requirements in the country according to Ballot Access News that stated in May 2003, “Georgia is the showcase example of why the Voter Freedom Act [H.R. 2268] is needed.”  Petitioning requirements are 10 times more restrictive than the national average of all other states combined for certain offices such as U.S. House of Representatives.

Compared to other states Georgia has the worst state ballot accessibility for alternative political parties:

• The barrier required by Georgia that a party must receive 20% of votes cast in the previous gubernatorial or presidential race to run a full slate of candidates is ten times the national median of about 2%.
• Georgia is one of the worst in the nation at political party qualification having no alternative parties qualifying in the last 25 years.
• Georgia is one of only two states that does not qualify all of the party nominees in the next election when a candidate of a party meets ballot access requirements.

As a result of Georgia’s overly restrictive ballot access laws, nearly 70% of all state legislature races have only one candidate! During the Civil Rights Movement it was understood that the right to vote without the right to vote for your candidate was useless!  When both major political parties work together to violate your God-given unalienable rights your voice is shut out.

But you have the ability to help change that by assisting independent candidates to get on the ballot by signing up today!