On May 4, the Oklahoma Senate rejected House amendments to SB 323. That is the bill to increase candidate filing fees. Generally the bill doubles them. Although the bill has passed both houses of the legislature, the versions in each house differ from each other. Because the Senate rejected the House version, the bill must now go to a conference committee. In Oklahoma, often when that happens, time runs out and the bill doesn’t pass.

The vote to reject the House amendments was 20-24. The bill’s sponsor is seeking reconsideration in the Senate. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.

If SB 323 passes and is signed, the procedure for independent presidential candidates will be harmed. SB 145, which has already passed the legislature, sets a filing fee of $17,500 for independent presidential candidates, and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties, who don’t submit a petition. But if SB 323 becomes law, that amount will be $35,000.

Another bill concerning filing fees, HB 1564, has also passed both houses, but the two versions are very different, so it is going to a conference committee also. The Senate version of HB 1564 raises fees, but the House version doesn’t. Thanks to Chris Powell for the news about HB 1564.

On May 4, the California Senate passed SB 568 by 32-6. It moves the primary for all office (in presidential years) from June to March. It allows the Governor to set a primary date that is even earlier than March.

The six “No” votes were all cast by Republicans: Patricia Bates, Jean Fuller, John Moorlach, Mike Morrell, Janet Nguyen, and Andy Vidak.

Scotusblog is the leading news source for U.S. Supreme Court news and analysis. When the court is sitting, Scotusblog regularly features cert petitions that seem to have unusual chances for being accepted. On May 3, Scotusblog chose the Kentucky Libertarian cert petition for its coverage. See here.

Kentucky is one of only two states in which a group can never be a qualified party unless it makes a certain showing in a presidential election. The Libertarian and Constitution Parties challenges Kentucky for making the pathway to qualified party status so limited. In many states, there are ballot-qualified parties that only exist in that one state and which don’t even participate in the presidential election. The Court will consider whether to hear this case at its May 11 conference, although no news from that conference will be available until May 15. Thanks to Mark Brown and Oliver Hall for the link.