On January 24, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed AB 779, which moves the petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, from August to May. The bill also moves the primary for state and local office from September to June.

The new deadline is almost certainly unconstitutional, under the U.S. Supreme Court decision Anderson v Celebrezze. New York now has the nation’s third earliest deadline, when the latest method for getting on the general election ballot for president is compared. The only two earlier states are North Carolina and Texas. A lawsuit is pending against the North Carolina deadline, and a case challenging the Texas deadline is likely to be filed any day now.

Single Transferable Vote is a voting system for electing members to legislative bodies. It is one form of proportional representation. Even though it is a very old system, it is not well-known in the United States. Law Professor Steve Mulroy, a proponent of the system, has this clear explanation at ElectionLawBlog.

Connecticut is holding a special State Senate election on February 26 in the Fifth District, which is centered on West Hartford. The Libertarian Party nominee is Jeff Przech, and he has petitioned to be on the ballot as a Libertarian, although his petition hasn’t been verified yet.

The Independent Party, which is ballot-qualified in that district, has also nominated Przech, so Przech will probably be on the ballot twice, and voters can choose to vote for him either as a Libertarian or as an Independent Party nominee. See this story. In 2018 practically all of the Independent Party nominees for federal and state office were also Republican nominees.