On March 6, the South Dakota Senate passed HB 1286. It makes some ballot access changes that are liberalizing, and some that are restrictive. The bill had already passed the House, but because the two versions differ, it must now return to the House.

It changes the non-presidential independent deadline from April to June. It lowers the number of signatures for a new party from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1%, and moves the deadline from March to July.

But it also says that new parties, and smaller qualified parties, must submit petitions for each of their nominees, even though there are no more primaries for new or small parties. Furthermore, even though it is worded very confusingly, it now appears that it eliminates the ability of small or new parties to nominate for the lower state executive positions by convention. The Secretary of State wrote an e-mail on March 5 to a newspaper reporter, saying the bill does not change the method by which small or new parties nominate for the lower executive positions. But on the floor of the Senate, the Senator handling the bill said it eliminates that method, and that now new and small party candidates for these offices must also submit petitions. The number of signatures is not clearly specified in the bill.

On March 6, a California Superior Court struck down California Election code section 3019(c)(2), which lets election officials invalidate mail ballots if the officials think the signature on the envelope doesn’t match the signature on the voter’s registration form. La Follette v Padilla, San Francisco, CPF 17-515931. The flaw in the law is that the voter is never informed that his or her ballot has been rejected, and therefore the voter has no chance to contest the ruling. Approximately one-half of 1% of all California mail ballots are rejected because officials think the signature is invalid. Here is the opinion. Thanks to Thomas Jones and Rick Hasen for the link.

U.S. Senator Thad Cochran is resigning from the Senate on April 1, 2018. His term would ordinarily not have been up until 2020. Mississippi law says his seat will be filled in a special non-partisan election on November 6, 2018. If no one gets 50%, there will be a run-off in December. Mississippi special elections, like Georgia and Texas special elections, are non-partisan, with no party nominees.

Meanwhile, the other Mississippi Senate seat will have a regularly-scheduled partisan election, also on November 6, 2018.