Currently, the Libertarian Party of Georgia is waiting for a decision from a U.S. District Court, in its challenge to the 5% (of the number of registered voters) petition requirement for the party to run candidates for U.S. House. On January 19, the party sent a supplemental document to the court, informing the court that for 2022, the state requires 360,572 signatures if the party wants to run a full slate of candidates for U.S. House. This number had not been known earlier. Here is the filing.

On January 20, the court admitted the document into evidence. The case is Cowen v Raffensperger, n.d., 1:17cv-4660.

Last year, the New Mexico Working Families Party completed the petition to be a qualified party. However, it did not have any nominees in New Mexico in 2020. When a new party completes the party petition in New Mexico, it is then qualified for at least two elections. Thanks to Rick Lass for this news.

Several interesting Arizona bills concerning elections have been introduced.

HB 2314, by Representative John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills), would allow election officials to omit the names of presidential elector candidates from general election ballots. Arizona is the most populous state that still prints the names of presidential elector candidates on ballots.

SB 1203, by four Democratic legislators, would require the presidential nominees of political parties to submit their income tax returns for the last five years, or forfeit ballot access. The bill does not include independent presidential candidates. A somewhat similar California law was declared unconstitutional last year in U.S. District Court.

HB 2181, also by Rep. Kavanagh, would move the deadline for filing as a write-in candidate from 40 days before the election, to 76 days before. It would also require write-in candidates to have lived in the jurisdiction for at least 120 days before filing. As applied to congress, this would be unconstitutional.