On April 30, the Rhode Island House passed HB 7090 unanimously. It moves the presidential primary from late April to early March. The bill has no effect on deadlines for general election ballot access.
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On April 30, Lindsay Garcia, a Democratic candidate for U.S. House in Louisiana, filed a federal lawsuit to stop Louisiana from redistricting U.S. House districts and making the new districts effective for the 2026 election. Garcia v Landry, m.d., 3:26cv-471. Here is the Complaint. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, an Obama appointee.
On April 30, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry formally cancelled the May 16 primaries for U.S. House. The proclamation leaves it up to the legislature to draw new U.S. House districts and new deadlines for candidate qualification. See the proclamation here. Now minor party and independent candidates for U.S. House will presumably have a new opportunity to run. Thanks to Tony Roza for the link.
As already noted, on April 14 an Arizona state trial court put gubernatorial candidate Hugh Lytle on the primary ballot of the Arizona Independent Party, even though he had listed his business address, not his home address, on his primary petition. The individual who had brought the challenge has now appealed to the State Supreme Court. Here is the opening brief. Beckman v Lytle, cv26-0124.
Hawaii holds primaries for all qualified parties, but the primary ballot is the same piece of paper for all voters. Each party has its own area on the ballot. Voters must confine themselves to vote only in one party’s area of the primary ballot.
To determine the order of parties on the primary ballot, the Elections Office holds a random drawing. On April 28 the office held the drawing. The order of parties on the primary ballot this year will be: (1) nonpartisan; (2) Libertarian; (3) Green; (4) Republican; (5) Democratic.