Both houses of the Maine legislature have given preliminary approval to LD 1673. The Senate passed it April 11 and the House on April 12. It sets up a presidential primary for Maine. The date would be set by the Secretary of State, but the primary would be on one of the Tuesdays in March. The Secretary of State would set the date by December of the year before the election.

Candidates would need 2,000 signatures. Only party members could vote in the presidential primaries. The bill also says the Secretary of State shall study how much the primaries would cost and report by December 1, 2017. If the Maine legislature wants to save money, it should provide for filing fees instead of signatures, because it costs tax dollars to check petition validity. Or the Maine legislature could have provided that candidates discussed in the news media be placed on the ballot automatically. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the news.

Mother Jones has this article about Victor Williams, a law professor who has filed for write-in status in Republican presidential primaries in five states. Williams is suing in several states for a ruling that Ted Cruz does not meet the constitutional qualifications to be President. By running in presidential primaries himself, he hopes to show that he has standing to file these cases.

On April 11, filing closed for the North Dakota June 14 primary. Seven statewide partisan races are up (not counting president). Here is the list of primary candidates (click on the link, then click on “search”). Libertarians are running for all seven statewide offices, but Democrats only have candidates for six of the seven.