The Indiana legislature adjourned for the year on April 22. Not a single election law bill passed. The most interesting election law bill was SB 418, which eased ballot access. It had passed the Senate Elections Committee but then the author, Senator Greg Walker (R-Columbus), withdrew it, although he says he will introduce it in 2018. He says he needs more time to persuade other legislators to support it.

Bills were introduced to tinker around the edges with the straight-ticket device, to authorize ranked-choice voting, and to have Indiana join the National Popular Vote Plan, but none of those bills passed either.

Nebraska LB 34 is now in effect in the state. It makes it easier for a party to remain on the ballot. On April 29, Governor Pete Ricketts let the bill go into effect. However, he didn’t sign it. Governors typically have three choices on a bill: they can sign it, let it become law without their signature, or veto it. Governors occasionally use the middle option when they don’t want to prevent a bill from going into effect, but they don’t completely approve of a bill.

The bill says a party remains on the ballot if it has at least 10,000 registrants. The old law, which this law supplements, said a party also remains on the ballot if it polls at least 5% for any statewide office at either of the last two elections. Therefore, there are now two means for a party to remain on the ballot instead of just one. Nebraska is one of 18 states which gives two methods for a party to remain on the ballot.

On April 26, U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough denied the motion of the state of Illinois to dismiss the ballot access case that concerns the 5% petition requirement for independent candidates for U.S. House. The case is Gill v Scholz, c.d., 3:16cv-03221.

The case had been filed in 2016 after independent U.S. House candidate David Gill was kept off the ballot. Judge Myerscough put him on the ballot, believing that the 5% petition requirement, as shown by the historical record, is too difficult. The Seventh Circuit removed Gill from the ballot a few weeks later, but did not write anything about the constitutional issue. The state then went back to Judge Myerscough and said the 7th circuit action proves that the law is constitutional. Judge Myerscough wrote on April 26, “Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is Denied. This Court previously found that Plaintiffs had established a sufficient likelihood of success on the merits to warrant a preliminary injunction. Although the 7th Circuit stayed enforcement of this Court’s preliminary injunction, the Seventh Circuit did not rule on the merits and ultimately dismissed the appeal as moot after the election. The Seventh Circuit did not vacate this Court’s preliminary injunction order despite Defendants’ request that the court do so. Defendants shall file an answer on or before May 10, 2017.”