The New York Times is reporting that the state chair of the New York Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs, wants to change the definition of a qualified party from a group that got 50,000 votes for Governor, to one that got 250,000 votes. See this story.

Jacobs wants the Commission that is considering public funding to make the change. The legislature has given the Commission the power to change certain other election laws (the Commission’s changes would automatically become law if the legislature doesn’t veto the Commission’s work).

On October 28, a state court in North Carolina invalidated the state’s U.S. House districts. See this story. The primary may need to be postponed; it is set for March 3.

Former Congressmember John Conyers died on October 27, at the age of 90. He served in the U.S. House from 1964 until 2017. He was the first member of Congress to ever introduce a federal ballot access bill. He introduced it in 1985, 1987, and 1989. It would have capped the number of signatures for president and U.S. Senate at one-tenth of 1% of the last vote cast, and capped U.S. House petitions at 1,000 signatures.

The bill was never given a vote on the House floor, although in 1989 it did have 40 co-sponsors, including almost all members of the Black caucus. Tne New Alliance Party conceived of the bill in 1984 after running its first presidential nominee, Dennis Serrette, and learning how severe the ballot access laws are in some states. Attorneys for the New Alliance Party, Gary Sinawski and Harry Kresky, helped draft the bill.

Article One of the U.S. Constitution says that congress is permitted to write or supercede state election laws for congressional elections, and congress has passed many laws regulating federal elections. However, ballot access laws are still entirely a matter of state law.