The Tennessee bills to make slight improvements in ballot access for new and minor parties have been delayed. This is fortunate, because it will give more time for Tennessee activists to make their case that the bills are not nearly good enough.

SB 935 was to have been voted on in the Senate floor on March 31, but that vote has been postponed to April 7. HB 794, which is identical, will be heard in the full State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday, April 5. The full committee will allow testimony, even though the subcommittee on March 30 did not allow testimony. However, people who wish to testify must give advance notice.

Both bills move the petition deadline from March to early April, but early April is still too early, according to the U.S. District Court decision from last year that struck down the old law. Furthermore, the bills do not reduce the number of signatures, 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. If the pending bills to lower the number of signatures pass in Oklahoma, Alabama, and North Carolina, then Tennessee will require more signatures (under this bill) to qualify a new party than any other state except California, Georgia and Texas. The 2012 requirement in Tennessee under this bill is 40,042 signatures. Tennessee didn’t require any signatures at all to qualify a party before 1961, and yet never had a ballot with more than six parties on it.