In Storer the court addressed a California requirement that an independent candidate file a petition signed by voters numbering at least 5% of the total votes cast in the state's last general election. The signatures could be obtained only during a 24-day period following the primary and ending 60 days prior to the general election.
Storer, supra at 726-27, 94 S.Ct. at 1277-1278. In remanding the case for further factual development, the court noted that a requirement greater than 5% “would be in excess percentagewise, of anything the Court has approved to date as a precondition to an independent's securing a place on the ballot....”
Id. at 739, 94 S.Ct. at 1283.
The Court's reference to the “reasonably diligent independent candidate” was meant to guide the lower court in resolving a close case, where the state had already demonstrated the important nature of its interest in assuring that a candidate had significant support, and where the extent of the burden on the plaintiff was unclear. This guidance did not in any way abrogate the strict scrutiny standard announced in Williams v. Rhodes, and most recently reaffirmed in Illinois State Board of Elections v. Socialist Workers Party, supra. More importantly, the present case is not a close one.