This Politico article sets out the rules for candidates to qualify for the first two Democratic presidential debates, and concludes that two individuals who have never held elective office may qualify. They are Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson.

The rules require them to receive contributions from 65,000 individuals, including at least 200 individuals in each of twenty states. Or they may qualify by polling at least 1% in a national poll. But if these two alternative methods result in more than twenty candidates qualifying, then every candidate must meet both alternatives.

The article says Andrew Yang is closer to qualifying than Marianne Williamson. Yang’s webpage says he already has contributions from 56,000 individuals. See this wikipedia article about him. Thanks to Election Law Blog for the link.

A group in St. Louis, Missouri, has launched a city initiative to convert the city’s elections for its own officers from partisan to non-partisan elections. The initiative proposes an election, followed by a runoff election if no one gets 50% in the election. The election would use approval voting, letting voters vote for as many candidates for any particular office as they wish. The initiative needs signatures equal to 10% of the registered voters, which would be approximately 22,000 signatures. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.

The New Mexico Senate Rules Committee is holding a Sunday hearing, March 10. It will hear HB 55, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. It will also hear HB 84, the bill for automatic voter registration. Thanks to Rick Lass for this news. This post has been updated; originally the hearing for these bills was on Saturday, March 9.