The Utah legislature adjourned Thursday night, March 8. Neither of the two bills that had passed the House, affecting how parties nominate, received a vote in the Senate, so both bills died.

HB 485 would have said that parties can’t change their rules affecting nominations in the election year itself. The bill was aimed at the Republican Party, which had passed a bylaw earlier this year saying any Republican who submits a petition to get on the primary ballot is deemed not to be a Republican.

HB 338 would have repealed the law that lets members of qualified parties petition for a place on the primary ballot, even if they lack much support at a party convention.

On March 8, a conference committee of the South Dakota legislature revised the ballot access bill and greatly improved it. Then, both houses of the legislature passed the bill. The Senate vote was unanimous and in the House, only five members voted “no.”

The new ballot access procedure for small qualified parties is a petition of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, due July 1. Then, the new party, and also older qualified smaller parties, are free to nominate for all office by convention, with no more petitioning needed.

The bill helps independent candidates by moving their petition deadline from April to July. UPDATE: unfortunately, the improvement in the independent petition deadline did not make it into the final bill. Thanks to Kurt Evans for that information.

On March 7, Illinois told the U.S. Supreme Court that it doesn’t plan to respond to the ballot access cert petition filed by the Green Party. The Green Party challenges the petition requirements for nominees of unqualified parties to get on the November ballot. Those rules are so stringent, Illinois was one of only three states with no minor party legislative candidates on the ballot in 2016. The case is Tripp v Scholz, 17-1129.

Of course, if the Court wants Illinois to file a response, Illinois will then do so.