On February 23, the Iowa Senate passed SF 413. It makes the petitions for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, more difficult. The statewide petition for President, Governor and U.S. Senator rises from 1,500 to 3,500 signatures. Furthermore, the bill requires 100 signatures from each of 19 counties. That part of the bill would be unconstitutional.

Similar provisions in HF 590 have already passed the House Committee on State Government, but the full House hasn’t passed that bill yet.

The bills have many unrelated provisions, such as shrinking voting hours on election day, and cutting the early voting period, and requiring postal ballots to be returned sooner. The Secretary of State and all 99 County Auditors (who run elections in Iowa) are opposed to the bill.

On February 12, the Utah House passed HB 75, which makes it easier for cities to use ranked choice voting for their own officers if they want to. The bill provides that when a city decides to use ranked choice voting, the county elections officials in that city’s county must help it. Many cities do not administer their own elections; they depend on the county elections office to do that. The vote was 46-25.

On February 23, a New York County Supreme Court issued an opinion in Jumaane Williams v Cuomo. This is a lawsuit filed by over 100 New York city primary candidates, seeking to suspend primary petitions for 2021 elections. The primary petitions are due in March 2021. The opinion rejects the case, pointing out that the legislature has already reduced the number of signatures for primary petitions in 2021.