On May 26, the Michigan State Board of Canvassers voted 2-2 to keep five Republican candidates for Governor off the August primary ballot. One of the candidates, James Craig, who had been considered a front-runner, then said he will sue to get back on the ballot. See this story. Statewide primary candidates in Michigan need 15,000 signatures. The five gubernatorial candidates who were removed all had petitions that appeared fraudulent just from their appearance, so no one actually checked the validity of each signature.

The Republican Party of Virginia frequently uses conventions instead of primaries to choose its nominees. This year, it chose U.S. House nominees in the Eighth, Tenth, and Eleventh Districts with conventions. Party rules now permit ranked choice voting in these nominating meetings, and ranked choice voting was used in two meetings: the Tenth District, on May 21; and the Eleventh District, on May 7. See this Fairvote story.

On May 25, the Arizona House passed SB 1460 unanimously. It is an omnibus election law bill. It lets independent candidates use electronic signatures. Existing law only allows candidates running in a primary to use electronic signatures. The bill is now through the legislature.

Unfortunately, it also moves the deadline to file as a declared write-in candidate from September to July, which defeats the whole purpose of having write-in space available on ballots. Write-in candidates, when they have won, have usually been candidates who entered the race late in the season, due to something unexpected having happened.