On September 8, the Missouri House Elections Committee passed HB 3, which moves the presidential primary from early February to early March. The bill also increases the filing fee for candidates who wish to run in a presidential primary from $1,000 to $5,000. And after 2012, that fee would rise to $10,000.

The filing fee change does not affect the ability of any qualified party to place its presidential nominee on the November ballot. There is no fee for that in Missouri or any state. But what the increased filing fee does mean (assuming the bill is signed into law) is that minor parties are very likely not to use their presidential primary, because it isn’t likely that any minor party presidential candidate will think it worthwhile to pay such a high fee just to run in his or her own party’s Missouri presidential primary. Generally, presidential primaries for minor parties are not binding anyway.

The Missouri election law will continue to have a petition in-lieu of filing fee for presidential primary candidates, which will continue to be 5,000 signatures. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for the news about the bill moving forward.