On March 23, the Oklahoma House Elections & Ethics Committee unanimously passed SB 896. It changes the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot from 10% of the vote for the office at the top of the ticket, to 2.5%. The bill was amended to take effect on November 1, 2016, instead of January 1, 2017, so assuming it passes the House soon, it will need to go back to the Senate.

The committee also passed SB 1016, to remove the names of any political parties from the voter registration form, and SB 1108, to remove the names of presidential elector candidates from the November ballot. The purpose of SB 1016 is to eliminate the need to reprint all the forms every time a new party qualifies, or every time one ceases to be qualified. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.

Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have withdrawn their names from the New York April 19 Republican presidential primary ballot. Normally, this season, candidates who cease cmpaigning don’t bother to withdraw their names from ballots. The only names on the New York Republican ballot will be Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Donald Trump.

The next presidential primary is Wisconsin’s April 5 event. The Wisconsin Republican ballot has twelve presidential candidates listed, most of whom have stopped campaigning. Wisconsin required candidates who didn’t wish to be on the ballot to withdraw in mid-January, so it is far too late for any of them to remove their names now.

Here is the Montana Republican Party’s response to the U.S. Supreme Court, in Ravalli County Republican Central Committee v McCulloch. It was filed on Tuesday, March 22, only a few hours after the state had submitted its brief. The issue is whether the Republican Party can avoid having its June 7, 2016 primary (including the presidential primary) be open to persons who are not Republicans in their heart.