On March 18, an Arkansas state trial court enjoined four new laws that restrict procedures for voters at the polls. See this story. There is no written opinion yet. The case had been filed by the Arkansas League of Women Voters.
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Alaska U.S. House member Don Young died March 18. According to this story, state law requires a special primary within three months of the death, followed by a special general election.
The top-four system, passed in November 2020, will be used for the special election. That will be the first time that it has been used.
It is somewhat plausible that the special primary will be June 16 and the special general election will be August 16. The regularly-scheduled primary is also August 16.
That will mean that on August 16, Alaska voters will use ranked-choice voting for the special general election, but they will not use ranked choice voting for the regularly-scheduled primary. For some reasons, the top-four backers wrote their initiative to use ranked choice voting in the general election, but not the primary.
Don Young was a Republican who was known for getting along with Democrats in Congress and working in a bipartisan fashion. It will be ironic if he is replaced by a more partisan Republican. Supporters of top-four systems insist, with no evidence, that top-four systems produce more moderate, centrist politicians.
The New Hampshire bill to move the non-presidential primary from September to June, SB 328, has been amended. Now it proposes to move the primary to August.
The Idaho primaries are May 17. This year, two individuals filed for the Idaho Libertarian nomination for Governor, so election officials will print up Libertarian primary ballots. When parties have no contested primaries, no primary ballots are prepared. It is believed 2022 will have the first actual Idaho Libertarian primary ballots.
Here is the candidate list. The qualified parties in Idaho are Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Constitution.
Here is a newspaper story about the 2022 Idaho Libertarian primary.
On March 3, the Oregon legislature passed SB 1527. Among other provisions, it eases the definition of a qualified party. It lowers the percentage of registered voters needed for a party to remain qualified from one-half of 1% of the total registration, to one-fourth of 1%.
Oregon also lets a party remain ballot-qualified party if it polls 1% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections (although such parties must have registration of at least one-tenth of 1%).
The part of SB 1527 that eases the definition of a party was amended into the bill just a few days before the legislature adjourned. The House passed the amended bill on March 3, and the Senate concurred in that amendment the same day. The bill saves the qualified status of the Working Families Party.