Two New York State Senators have introduced SB 8444. It would increase the validity rate for petition signatures for primary and general election candidates. It would provide that signatures are valid if a reasonable person could determine that the signer is a registered voter. Technical mistakes concerning the city, town or village would no longer be enough to invalidate a signature. Cover sheet errors would no longer be a basis for invalidating a signature. Errors in page numbers would also no longer be enough to invalidate signatures.

The two sponsors are Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick (D-Nyack) and Senator Rachel May (D-Syracuse). Thanks to Joe Burns for this news. If passed, the bill would not take effect until 2023.

The Forward Party will petition to get its nominee on the ballot for Governor of Minnesota. He is Cory Hepola, a former radio talk show host in Minneapolis. The party also hopes to persuade Richard Painter to be its nominee for Attorney General of Minnesota. Separate petitions of 2,000 signatures would be needed for each. Petitioning cannot start until April.

The state chair of the Forward Party of Minnesota is John Denney, who was formerly an Independence Party nominee for Congress.

On March 4, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman, a Clinton appointee, issued an injunction, directing Cook County, Illinois election officials to recognize that the Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified for all partisan Cook County office this year. The officials had determined that even though the party polled enough votes in 2020 to be ballot-qualified inside Cook County, the party could only nominate executive positions in its June 2022 primary, not county commission candidates. Here is the four-page order in Libertarian Party of Illinois v Yarbrough, n.d., 1:22cv-578.