On April 6, the Texas House Elections Committee passed HB 464, which requires candidates nominated in convention to pay filing fees. The vote was 5-1. Traditionally, in Texas, filing fees have only been required for candidates running in partisan primaries, and the money is used to help administer the primaries. The bill says the fees paid by convention nominees would go into the general state treasury.

If this bill is signed into law, the number of people who run for office as Libertarians or Greens will probably become much smaller. Texas has 165 legislative elections every two years (150 house seats and 15 state senate seats). Every year, a majority of districts have only one major party candidate. In November 2014, 110 of the 165 districts had only one major party candidate. The Libertarian and Green Parties run many candidates, thus giving voters a choice of more than one candidate in most legislative districts. HB 464 will inevitably mean that a majority of legislative districts will have only one candidate on the November ballot. Thanks to Jim Riley for the news about the bill.

On April 8, the Oklahoma Senate Rules Committee amended HB 2181, the bill easing ballot access for newly-qualifying parties. The bill as passed by the House sets the petition at 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. As amended by the Senate Rules Committee, the bill is 3% of the last gubernatorial vote. The amended bill then passed the Committee 11-1.

3% of the last gubernatorial vote would be 24,745 valid signatures. Even if the bill is signed into law in this form, Oklahoma would still be the only state in the nation with no method to get on the November ballot for President (outside of the two major parties) that is at or below 2% of the last gubernatorial vote.

The existing law requires 41,242 signatures for 2016, and required 66,744 signatures for 2014. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for the news.

On April 6, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party filed this brief, arguing that the U.S. District Court that is hearing the Libertarian Party’s ballot access case should not let the Republican National Committee intervene in the case. The Libertarian brief argues that the case was filed in July 2014 and if the Republican Party had wanted to intervene, it should have done so last year. The Libertarians point out that if intervention is allowed, the case will be delayed. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the link.