On July 24, the Arizona Secretary of State filed paperwork with a U.S. District Court, conceding that Arizona’s county distribution requirement for primary election statewide candidate petitions is unconstitutional. This came about because the Arizona Public Integrity Alliance and some Arizona voters had earlier filed a lawsuit against the county distribution requirement. The state decided not to try to defend the law, and will ask the Court to rule it unconstitutional. Arizona Public Integrity Alliance v Bennett, 2:14cv-1044.

The law requires statewide candidates, seeking a place on a primary ballot, to collect signatures from at least three counties. The only state that still has a county distribution requirement for statewide candidate petitions is now Pennsylvania. As in Arizona, the Pennsylvania law only applies to candidates in primaries. The Pennsylvania law requires signatures from at least 10 counties.