According to Illinois Politico Playbook, there is talk that the Illinois legislature will pass a bill moving the 2022 primary from March to a later date. This is because there is so little time for new U.S. House and state legislative districts to be drawn. See here.

Moving the Illinois primary to a later date would not affect the petition deadline for new and previously unqualified parties, nor independent candidates, because the law ties the petition deadline to a number of days in advance of the general election. Specifically the independent and minor party petition deadline is 134 days before the November election.

The Socialist Workers Party will attempt to place Dennis Richter on the California 2021 gubernatorial recall ballot. Assuming he gets on the ballot, his ballot label will say “Party preference: none”, whereas members of qualified parties will have their party label on the ballot.

It is not certain when the recall election will be. Although most people assume it will be in November, there is some support in the legislature among Democrats to pass a bill that would make it several months earlier, even possibly as early as August.

SB 292, the Nevada bill to make ballot access for new parties more difficult, has a hearing in the Assembly Legislative Operations & Elections Committee on Tuesday, May 25, at 4 p.m. It changes the petition deadline for new parties from late May to early May, and also imposes a very difficult distribution requirement. The law is very poorly written but seems to say that the petition must contain signatures of the precise same percentage of registered voters in each of the four U.S. House districts.

The sponsor has not explained the distribution requirement in any committee hearings so far. She merely says the bill “updates” the ballot access laws. No new party has qualified in Nevada since 2011. Nevada is one of only five states in which the Geeen Party presidential nominee has not appeared on the ballot in either of the last two presidential elections. In the Senate, the bill passed on a party line vote, with all Democrats voting “yes” and all Republicans voting “no.”

The bill also imposes a straight-ticket device.