At least 42 Democratic and Republican candidates for partisan office in Florida have asked the Governor and Secretary of State to waive filing fees. Florida has the highest filing fees, by far, of any state. Candidates for congress need over $10,000. Florida has procedures for petitions in lieu of filing fees, but the health crisis has made petitioning very difficult. See this story.

On April 2, the Florida Secretary of State issued an emergency proclamation deleting the requirement that only original petition signatures can be submitted for verification. In Florida, candidate petitions are one-signature forms. Presumably this means that candidates can submit photocopies. The rule change does not appear to allow electronic signatures, although this is not clear.

On April 2, the Illinois Libertarian and Green Parties filed a federal lawsuit to gain ballot access relief for 2020. Libertarian Party of Illinois v Pritzker, n.d., 1:20cv-2112. Here is the Complaint. UPDATE: the case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Charles Norgle, a Reagan appointee. Although he has been a federal judge since 1984, it does not appear that he has ever before had a constitutional ballot access case.

On March 30, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed HB 681, which eliminates all candidate petitions during 2020, both for candidates seeking a spot on a primary ballot, or the general election. Here is the bill. Scroll down past the bill’s original contents. As introduced originally, the bill had nothing to do with election law. Thanks to Ballotpedia for this news.

Without this bill, unqualified parties would have needed 1,000 signatures to place their presidential nominee on the November ballot. The only qualified parties besides the Democratic and Republican Parties are the Liberty Union, Progressive, Green Mountain, and Libertarian Parties. The Green Mountain Party is organized only in Vermont, has never participated in a presidential election, and has no connection to the Green Party.