Yesterday’s blog post about the Vermont House is in error. Fortunately, the bill mentioned in that blog post does not move the independent candidate petition deadline from August to May. The original bill was numbered HB 97 and it did make that change, but most of the contents of that bill were put into HB 429, and nothing was inserted concerning the petition deadline.

However, HB 429 does make it more difficult for a candidate to win the nomination of a party that holds a primary, if the candidate is a write-in candidate in that primary. It doubles the number of votes needed so that it matches the number of signatures that would have been needed to get on the primary ballot. Also it bans “sore losers”. The bill now goes to the State Senate. Thanks to the Progressive Party for this news.