On March 8, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed HB 1338, which increases the number of signatures for independent presidential candidates, and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties, from 1,000 signatures to 5,000 signatures.
17
Counterpunch has a new article about the harm done to minor parties by HR One, the bill in Congress to change many election laws. This one is also by Howie Hawkins, the Green Party presidential nominee in 2020. The article is balanced and acknowledges the helpful parts of the bill. The article also has a list of reforms that should have been included in the bill. The Green Party is doing a very good job of publicizing the harmful aspect of the bill. No daily newspaper has even mentioned that the bill makes it much harder for presidential candidates to qualify for primary season matching funds. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.
On March 11, the Arkansas Supreme Court agreed with a lower state court, and ruled that the lower court was correct last year when it enjoined a state law that makes it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot. Thurston v Safe Surgery Arkansas, cv-20-562. Here is the 25-page opinion.
The law says that before an initiative may begin to circulate, the sponsors must obtain from the Arkansas State Police a criminal record search for every paid circulator who is expected to work on the initiative. The lower court found a technical flaw in the law. The law says that the criminal search shall include both state and federal crimes. However, the State Police have no ability to obtain that information for federal crimes.
The Secretary of State argued that the lower state court should just have stricken reference to federal crimes, in order to solve the problem, but the State Supreme Court said the court had no power to do that. The Supreme Court notes that there is no severability clause in the law.
This New York Times article says that China is imposing ballot access restrictions in Hong Kong, to prevent pro-democracy activists from being allowed into the election.
The LA Progressive, an one-line news source, has this article by Michael Feinstein, about HR One, the Democratic election law bill in Congress. Feinstein criticizes the measure for making it five times more difficult for presidential candidates to qualify for primary season matching funds.