On March 8, the U.S. House passed HR 1, by a party-line vote of 234-193. However, the U.S. Senate is not expected to vote on the bill. HR 1 is the omnibus federal election law bill. It provides for public financing of candidates for Congress, nonpartisan redistricting of U.S. House districts, automatic voter registration, imposes new campaign finance restrictions, and makes it more difficult for presidential candidates to qualify for primary season matching funds. The provision for automatic voter registration would assist ballot access, because a larger percentage of petition signers would be registered voters.

It is expected that Democrats in the U.S. House will now introduce new bills that incorporate various provisions of HR 1, so that possibly a few provisions of HR 1 will have a chance to become law.

On March 7, the U.S. House defeated an amendment by Congressmember Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) to set the voting age for federal office at age 16. The vote was 126-305. This bill, if enacted, would have been constitutional, according to the U.S. Supreme Court opinion Oregon v Mitchell, from 1970. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court said the Elections Clause of Article One allows Congress to alter the voting age for federal office, without a constitutional amendment. Thanks to Steve Goodale for this news.

On March 7, the Arkansas Senate passed SB 445 by 20-7. It moves the primary, for all office, in presidential years, from May to the first week in March. It also sets an earlier deadline for primary candidates to file. The existing deadline is 75 days before the primary, but the bill moves that to 92 days, in presidential election years only.

The existing law says the petition to qualify a new party is due 60 days before the date on which primary candidates file. This means that the bill, if enacted, will move the petition deadline for a newly-qualifying party from January of the election year, to October of the odd year before the election.