Both bills in the Iowa legislature to ease ballot access failed to pass the committee in their house of origin by March 6, so they are dead. SF 68 would have moved the petition deadline for non-presidential minor party and independent candidates from March to August. SF 70 would have eased the definition of a qualified party.

SF 68 did not affect policy, because the March petition had already been held unconstitutional in 2022, and is not enforced. So all the bill would have done was to bring the code up-to-date. One would think that bill could have easily passed, but it didn’t.