On April 13, the Maryland legislature passed HB 485. It restores public funding for candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. The state’s program had existed in the past, but had been repealed in 2010. The money comes from a voluntary check off on state income tax forms.
Illinois will hold a special election on September 10 to fill the vacant U.S. House seat in the 18th district. See this story. The primary will be July 7. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
Here are details from the State Board of Elections. Democrats need 626 signatures by April 20, and Republicans need 1,014 signatures by the same date. Nominees of unqualified parties, and independent candidates, need 12,602 signatures, due June 25.
The United States government had sued Illinois over the dates involving this special election. Originally the state was going to have the primary on June 8 and the special election itself on July 24. The case was United States v State of Illinois, northern district, 1:15cv-2997. The state gave in and did not contest the lawsuit, and agreed to provide more time between the primary and the election so that overseas absentee ballots would have more time to receive and return their ballots.
According to this story, the consortium of Canadian broadcasters that sponsors election debates before Parliamentary elections will invite the leaders of five parties to debate each other.
The election itself is October 19, 2015.
On April 14, a Virginia state court ruled that Joe Morrissey can’t be on the Democratic primary ballot for State Senate. He was kept off the primary ballot because the local Democratic Party said he didn’t have 250 valid signatures on his petition, even though he submitted 972 and even though local election officials said he had enough valid signatures. See this story.
Rhode Island Representative Brian Newberry (R-New Smithfield) has introduced HB 6054, to move the presidential primary from the fourth Tuesday in April to the fourth Tuesday in March. For 2016, that would be March 22. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.