I thought somebody might be interested in the following material from
the Wikipedia page covering ballot access.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballot_access
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Copenhagen Document of the Helsinki Accords
 signed by President George H.W. Bush

President George H.W. Bush signed * (see below) the Copenhagen Document
of the Helsinki Accords that states in part:

(7.5) - respect the right of citizens to seek political or public
office, individually or as representatives of political parties or
organizations, without discrimination;

(7.6) - respect the right of individuals and groups to establish, in
full freedom, their own political parties or other political
organizations and provide such political parties and organizations with
the necessary legal guarantees to enable them to compete with each other
on a basis of equal treatment before the law and by the authorities;...

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The United States has been criticized by the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for its harsh ballot access laws in
the past. In 1996, United States delegates responded to the criticism by
saying, unfair ballot access "could be remedied through existing appeal
and regulatory structures and did not represent a breach of the
Copenhagen commitments."[4]

The OSCE published a report on the 2004 United States election, which,
among other things, noted restrictive ballot access laws.[5]

The United States and Switzerland are the only countries in the world
that don’t have national ballot access standards for federal
elections;[6] however in Swiss federal elections each Canton elects its
own representatives, and each candidate can only be listed in one
Canton. Since 1985, Democrats and Republicans (including Congressman
John Conyers (D-MI), Congressman Tim Penny (D-MN) and Congressman Ron
Paul (R-TX)) have repeatedly introduced in the US House of
Representatives a bill that would set maximum ballot access requirements
for House elections. The bill has only made it to the House floor once,
in 1998, when it was defeated 62-363.



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signed*

United States law
Main articles: Treaty Clause * and Foreign policy of the United States

In the United States, the term "treaty" has a different, more restricted legal sense than exists in international law. U.S. law distinguishes what it calls treaties from treaty executive agreements, congressional-executive agreements, and sole executive agreements. All four classes are equally treaties under international law; they are distinct only from the perspective of internal American law. The distinctions are primarily concerning their method of ratification. Whereas treaties require advice and consent by two-thirds of the Senate, sole executive agreements may be executed by the President acting alone. Some treaties grant the President the authority to fill in the gaps with executive agreements, rather than additional treaties or protocols. And finally, Congressional executive agreements require majority approval by both the House and the Senate, either before or after the treaty is signed by the President.

Currently, international agreements are executed by executive agreement rather than treaties at a rate of 10:1. Despite the relative ease of executive agreements, the President still often chooses to pursue the formal treaty process over an executive agreement in order to gain Congressional support on matters that require the Congress to pass implementing legislation or appropriate funds, and those agreements that impose long-term, complex legal obligations on the U.S.

* Treaty Clause 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_Clause