The Montana Senate State Administration Committee will hear HB 120 on Monday, March 18. It eases the petition deadline for non-presidential independents from March to May, and also permits independent presidential and vice-presidential candidates to get on the November ballot even if they had had some involvement with a political party during the preceding year.
The California Senate Elections Committee will hear SB 213 on Tuesday, March 19. It repeals all California residency requirements for petitioners.
I think voters should have the same legal presumption as those people accused of crimes — innocent until proven guilty. That is to say, the burden of proof that a person is not a qualified voter should be either on the representative of the state, who supposedly works for them, or a third party who claims otherwise. And I believe the same thing could be said with regard to the qualification of political parties. We seem to have gotten things completly upside down in America. It should be in this order of priority: the citizen (voter), their free associations (politicl parties) and then in the end the members of government who should be facilitating the process and not using it to frustrate the will of the voters. I know — how naive of me. Just saying.