On October 17, an Alaska Superior Court ruled that if the Democratic Party wants to let registered independents run in the Democratic primary, then the party can do that, even though it violates election law. Alaska Democratic Party v State, 1ju-17-563. See this story. The 33-page ruling can be read here.

If an independent wins the Democratic primary, then, according to the court ruling, he or she will be labeled on the November ballot as a Democrat, because that is the party that nominated the individual. Thanks to Jim Riley for the link.

On the morning of Tuesday, October 17, the North Carolina House passed SB 656. Because the Senate passed it the day before, it is now law. Governor Roy Cooper had vetoed it, but the legislature has now overridden his veto.

Many Democratic members of the House said in debate on October 17 that they support the ballot access liberalization, but that they voted to uphold the gubernatorial veto because of the unrelated part of the bill that eliminates judicial primary elections in 2018.

As a result of the success of SB 656, there are now only four states without some means for a presidential candidate (running outside the two major parties) to get on the ballot with the support of 25,000 or fewer voters: California, Texas, Michigan, and Indiana. For U.S. House, the only states that ever require petitions in excess of 8,000 signatures are now Georgia and Illinois.

Here is the text of the final draft of SB 656.

Late on October 15, Governor Jerry Brown signed California AB 469. It lowers the number of signatures to get on the ballot, for candidates who don’t pay the filing fee. The statewide petition drops from 10,000 to 7,000. The U.S. House and State Senate petition drops from 3,000 to 2,000. The Assembly petitions drops from 1,500 to 1,000.

The bill also allows these petitions to circulate two weeks earlier than under the old law. However, the provision allowing candidates to submit supplemental petitions after the first petition has been checked is repealed.

Activists from the Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party did good work on this bill. The original bill, which was proposed by California’s county election officials, abolished the supplemental petitions but did not reduce the number of signatures.

These petitions are useful even if they are not completed. Every valid signature on an in lieu petition reduces the amount of the filing fee. The filing fees are based on the annual salary of the office sought. Statewide office filing fees are 2% of the salary; district office is 1% of the salary.