ROCKINGHAM — Candidates not affiliated with a political party could soon have an easier time getting on the ballot.
State Rep. Ken Goodman, D-Richmond, announced last week that he was drafting legislation that would allow any unaffiliated voter to file for office without having to garner signatures from registered voters.
“Competition will improve the state of politics in North Carolina,” he said in a statement. “If voters say they want more choices, then we should take down the barriers that prohibit independent voters from being able to run and serve in public office.”
According to Goodman, the bill he plans to file in the upcoming long session would create an unaffiliated primary — like those for the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties — should more than one independent candidate file for office.
“I do not know what type of reception it will get from the political parties,” he said. “I suspect it may get sent to Rules Committee and buried. But we need to have this discussion and debate. The people want our state government to work and giving ballot access to unaffiliated, independent voters will hold both political parties accountable. Frankly, it will shake things up and that’s what we need.”
Rep. Paul Tine, U-Dare, is the only member of the N.C. House of Representatives not affiliated with the two major parties.
Kenneth Robinette, chairman of the Richmond County Board of Commissioners, had to collect nearly 1,200 signatures earlier this year to get his name on the November ballot after switching from the Democratic Party to being unaffiliated.
“I think it’s a good bill,” he said Monday. “I think more and more people are going independent because they want to represent what’s right, not just the party. I just think there should be some middle ground.”
Robinette said the current process was “almost discriminating” because Republican and Democratic candidates don’t have to gather petitions, adding that it would be a challenge to get signatures running unaffiliated for a statewide or federal office.
“They need to get people in there that’s going to represent their constituents, rather than the party,” he said, adding that independent office holders could be more efficient and effective. “My party is the people of Richmond County.”
Jordon Greene, president and founder of Free the Vote N.C., said he was “glad to hear a legislator proposing much needed ballot access reform.”
“It is an important issue that often gets overlooked while many voters are either forced to vote for a candidate they don’t believe in in order to exercise their right to vote or feel that their time is best spent avoiding the polls,” he told the Daily Journal.
Greene said, at face value, Goodman’s proposal gives him both hope and pause.
“Reducing the barrier to unaffiliated candidates in North Carolina is a reform we need without doubt, but introducing a qualifier to how many can then be on the ballot through a primary system, in my opinion, lessens the value of the proposal,” he said.
“Unaffiliated candidates, or independents, are often that because they don’t proscribe to one political mold or another,” Greene continued. “Primaries exist to help a political party, a group that is held together, however roughly it may be, by certain similar political ideals.”
That cannot necessarily be the case for independents, he said. If multiple independent candidates are running for the same seat, Greene worries that a primary may “shut down another unique voice” and wind up more like a general election.
“Instead, I think the reforms that Free the Vote North Carolina has offered over the past few years to generously reduce the signature requirement for unaffiliated candidates without altogether removing it, without an additional primary, is a much better solution,” he said. “Our proposal seeks to provide better, more free and equal access to the ballot through requirements that are sensible and in line with most of the states in the Union without again denying the citizens the right to choose on election day who they wish to represent them.”
Greene said his group would be glad to work with Goodman and others in the General Assembly to put together “this type of long overdue ballot access reform legislation.”
Goodman said there is a “total transformation” happening in the political systems, parties and elections and voters are telling him they want more choices and better options.
“The best way to improve politics is to allow independents access to the ballot,” he said. “We need strong leaders with bold ideas who can help move our state forward. Allowing more people to be involved in the election and the political process will strengthen our state as a whole.”
Reach William R. Toler at 910-817-2675 and follow him on Twitter @William_r_toler.
