On April 8, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam moved the non-presidential primary from June 9 to June 23. This automatically extends the non-presidential independent and minor party candidate petition deadline, because the law says those petitions are due on primary day.
The order has no effect on the presidential petition deadline, which continues to be August 21.
National Review has this article by Law Professor Joshua Kleinfeld and Rachel Kleinfeld, advocating that at least this year, states should let all voters cast postal ballots. This idea is not original, but given that National Review is considered to be in alignment with the Republican Party generally, and given President Trump’s hostility to postal ballots, this article is significant. Thanks to Ilya Shapiro for the link.
On April 8, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy extended the non-presidential independent petition deadline from June 2 to July 7. He also said that independent candidate petitions can gather electronic signatures. He also moved the primary for president and all other office from June 2 to July 7. See this story.
The independent presidential petition continues to be due July 27. Statewide independent petitions in New Jersey are 800 signatures and a partisan label is permitted other than just the word “independent.”
Bob Dunning has this commentary on California’s top-two system, in the Davis (Yolo County) Enterprise.
According to this story, on April 8, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon asked the legislature to quickly legalize electronic signatures for candidate petitions. Minnesota does not have statewide initiatives. Also, candidates seeking a place on a primary ballot don’t need signatures. So this proposal mostly affects ballot access petitions for minor party and independent candidates.
