On April 26, the North Carolina Senate unanimously passed SB 655. It moves the primary, for all office in all election years, from early May to early March. Because the bill does not adjust the independent candidate petition deadline, and because existing law links that deadline to the date of the primary, if the bill passed, the independent candidate petition deadline in 2018 would be February 21. This is clearly unconstitutional. In 1980 a U.S. District Court had ruled that the April deadline for independent candidate petitions was too early.