Iowa State Senator Mark Chelgren (R-Ottumwa) has introduced SF 60, which would abolish the straight-ticket device. A similar bill in 2015 in Iowa made some headway, but did not pass.
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Idaho State Senator Grant Burgoyne (D-Boise) has introduced SB 1001, which would set up a top-two system for all partisan office. The bill even appears to extend to presidential elections. If such a bill had been in effect in 2016, Ted Cruz would have been one of the names on the November ballot for president, because he won the Republican Idaho presidential primary.
Arkansas Senator Gary Stubblefield (R-Branch) has introduced SB 122, which would move the primary from late May to early March. The state had an early March primary in 2016 but the existing law says primaries after 2016 should return to May (with the run-off in June).
Every time Arkansas moves the primary to an earlier date, the petition deadlines for non-presidential independent candidates and new parties automatically become much earlier. Arkansas is already in court over those deadlines, and SB 122 makes them worse.
North Dakota Representative Corey Mock has introduced HB 1417, which makes it easier for small qualified parties to nominate candidates for the legislature, and also makes it easier for them to remain on the ballot.
The existing law requires a party to attract approximately 10% to 15% of all the primary voters to choose that party’s primary ballot. If that doesn’t happen, that party can’t nominate anyone for the legislature. Because of this law, only the Democratic and Republican Parties have had any legislative nominees since 1976. The bill deletes this primary vote test. No other state has such a ballot access hurdle for party nominees.
The bill also lowers the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot from 5% for certain statewide offices, to 2%.
Mock is a Democrat. The bill has a Democratic co-sponsor and four Republican co-sponsors. The Democratic co-sponsor is Senator Erin Oban. The Republican co-sponsors are Senator Jordan Kannianen, and Representatives Christopher Olson, Luke Simons, and Nathan Toman.
Bills have been introduced in both houses of the New Hampshire legislature to ban fusion, the practice of allowing two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. Fusion in New Hampshire is difficult, because the only way anyone can get the nomination of a party other than his or her own is to win the other party’s primary by write-ins in that primary. But it is used every election by some legislative candidates.
Both bills are sponsored by Democrats. They are SB 114 by Senator Dan Feltes (D-Concord), and HB 217 by Representative Michael Cahill (D-Newmarket). Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.