On March 3, the Utah Senate Government Operations Committee passed HB 70 by a unanimous vote. It deletes the straight-ticket device. The bill had already passed the House.
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Texas held its primaries for president and all other partisan office on March 3. According to this article, only 25.2% of registered voters cast a vote. By contrast, in the March 2016 primary, over 30% of registered voters voted.
Texas is the only state that won’t let primary voters sign for a new party or an independent candidate, if the voter voted in a primary. The low primary turnout will be somewhat helpful for minor party and independent candidate petitions this year.
The Libertarian and Green Parties are already on the Texas ballot.
Slightly more voters in 2020 voted in the Democratic primary than the Republican primary. Texas has an open primary. Any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot.
The Gloucester Daily Times has this newspaper story about the increase in Libertarian Party registration in Massachusetts.
Some individuals who had hoped to run for Georgia Supreme Court have sued the state for cancelling the election they expected to run in.
See this story.
The Virginia Green Party has chosen B. Sidney Smith for president, and Cheri Honkala for vice-president, for purposes of petitioning for 2020. Virginia law allows stand-ins. When the actual Green Party nominees are known, Smith and Honkala will withdraw and be replaced by the actual nominees.