On March 22, the New Hampshire House tabled HB 363 by a voice vote. This is the bill that would have eased the deadline for an independent candidate, or the nominee of an unqualified party, to file a declaration of candidacy. Currently the deadline is in June, but the bill would have moved it to July and been especially useful to presidential candidates in the general election who don’t decide to run until the middle of the year.

The bill would also have de-coupled the independent candidate petition deadline from the date of the non-presidential primary, so in case the legislature moves the non-presidential primary from September to an earlier month, that would not have affected the independent candidate petition deadline. That deadline is in August now, but if the legislature moves the non-presidential primary to an earlier date, the deadline will get worse. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.