On March 24, Montana Republican Party officials said they had hired paid circulators to get the Green Party on the ballot earlier this year. The party says the effort cost $100,000. See this story.
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The Chicago Tribune has this story about the problem that minor party and independent candidates will have with petitioning. The Illinois primary was earlier this month, and all primary petitioning for Republicans and Democrats was carried out last year, so they haven’t had the same problem. The article says it is not likely that the state government will do anything about the problem. A lawsuit filed by the Green and Libertarian Parties will probably be filed soon.
Politico has this useful map and article showing which states have banned large gatherings. Most states have done so. These bans impact the ability to petition, of course.
The Republican Party of Maine has been conducting a referendum petition to stop the use of ranked choice voting for president in the general election. The party needs approximately 63,000 valid signatures. According to this story, in order to continue to collect signatures, the party has set up centers at which voters may drive to the location and sign the petition without leaving their car. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.
On March 23, a lawsuit was filed in Virginia state court, asking that the normal requirement of 10,000 signatures for a candidate to get on a statewide primary ballot be suspended due to the health emergency. The lawsuit is filed by Omari Faulkner, a Republican running for U.S. Senate. Faulkner is represented by Jason Torchinsky, a specialist in election law.
Here is the Complaint in Faulkner for Virginia v Virginia State Board of Elections, which was filed in the Circuit Court for the city of Richmond.
There are six declared Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate race. Here is information about Faulkner. The Complaint says that Faulkner has collected 3,769 signatures. The deadline is March 26. The Complaint asks that the requirement be set at 3,500 signatures. It notes that New York has already administratively cut the number of signatures needed for primary candidates to 30% of the normal requirement. Thanks to D.C. Sachs for this news.