According to this story, Pennsylvania U.S. House member Tom Marino, a Republican representing the 10th district, is expected to resign his seat soon, which will mean a special election later this year. Although the Libertarian and Green Parties are not on the ballot in Pennsylvania for regularly-scheduled elections, they are considered to be on the ballot for all special elections. Their nominees won’t need any petition in the upcoming special election.
On April 4, seven members of the Illinois Green Party were elected or re-elected to local non-partisan office. See the list here. Thanks to Joshua for the link.
On April 11, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla endorsed SB 568, which moves the primary in presidential years, for all office, from June to the third Tuesday in March. The author of SB 568 is Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens). The bill says the Governor would have the power to move the primary to an even earlier date.
The bill is similar to AB 84, by Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco). AB 84 sets the primary in the first week of March, for all office, in presidential years.
SB 568 has a hearing in the Senate Elections & Constitutional Amendments Committee on April 18, Tuesday, at 1:30 p.m. AB 84 has a hearing in the Assembly Elections Committee on April 26, Wednesday, at 9 a.m.
If either of these bills pass, there would be no means for a candidate for Congress, or partisan state office, to get on any ballot, in the year of the election itself. The filing deadline for candidates who want to be on a ballot would be in December of the year before the election. Because California has a top-two system, there is no method for candidates to get on the November ballot (except for president) other than through the primary process. No other state has ever had an election system with the characteristic that all routes to the ballot are closed off in the election year itself. It is likely that such a system would violate the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has on three occasions said that there must be some means onto the general election ballot that is later than early spring of the election year. The cases were Anderson v Celebrezze (1983), Lendall v Jernigan (1977), and Salera v Tucker (1976). The latter two were summary affirmances and related to congressional and state legislative elections.
On April 11, North Carolina Representatie Bill Shepard (R-Jacksonville) and some other legislators from each major party introduced HB 769. It improves ballot access for newly-qualifying parties and independent candidates. It sets the statewide petition at one-fourth of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. If the bill were enacted, the 2018 and 2020 statewide petitions would require 11,778 signatures, due in July.
Current law requires 94,221 signatures, and the independent petitions are due in April; the new party petition is due in May.
On April 10, the Iowa House again passed HF 516, which repeals the straight-ticket device and makes other unrelated changes as well. The bill had passed both houses of the legislature in March, but the versions of the bill were different in each house, so the House had to pass it again. It still isn’t through the legislature, though, until it passes the Senate one more time.
The Governor is expected to sign the bill. Then, the only states that will still have the device are Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah. Also in Michigan it was repealed but it still exists because a U.S. District Court Judge blocked the repeal. It is somewhat likely that the Texas legislature will repeal the device this month or next month.
