On April 12, the Oklahoma House Elections & Ethics Committee passed SB 350. It makes it easier for a party to remain on the ballot. The bill had already passed the Senate. The vote in committee was 7-0.

The current vote test for a party to remain on is a vote of 2.5% for the office at the top of the ballot (president in presidential years, governor in midterm years). The bill changes that to 2.5% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. Before 1974, the Oklahoma vote test was also either of the last two elections, so this is not a new idea for Oklahoma. Oklahoma has many statewide offices up in midterm years.

On April 10, Kay Ivey became Governor of Alabama. She had been Lieutenant Governor, and the governor elected in 2014, Robert Bentley, recently resigned. Ivey is Alabama’s second woman governor. The first was Lurleen Wallace, wife of George Wallace. Lurleen was elected Governor in 1966. George Wallace was not permitted to run for re-election in 1966, due to term limits, so he arranged to help elect his wife.

It is not known if Governor Ivey feels that the state should hold a special U.S. Senate election this year. Jeff Sessions resigned as U.S. Senator from Alabama earlier this year, to become Attorney General. The Alabama election law says special elections should be held “forthwith”, but Governor Bentley opposed a special election for that seat until November 2018. The matter is currently being litigated in state court.

Here is the wikipedia page for Kay Ivey.

Here is a link to Kansas election returns, for the April 11 special U.S. House election. With all precincts counted (but not all ballots), the results are: Republican 52.53%; Democratic 45.75%; Libertarian 1.72%.

When this same seat was up in November 2016, the results were: Republican 60.67%; Democratic 29.61%; independent 6.91%; Libertarian 2.81%.