On February 17, the Oklahoma State Senate Rules Committee unanimously passed SB 896, which eases the definition of “Political party” from a group that polled 10% for the office at the top of the ballot in the last election, to one that polled 2.5% for such offices. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.

The Senate Rules Committee has eleven members, and the Senate only has 48 members, so the fact that all eleven Senators on the Rules Committee voted for the bill is a good indication that the bill is likely the pass the full Senate.

According to this story, Pennsylvania election officials have rejected Willie Wilson’s petition to be listed on the Democratic presidential primary. The state says he has fewer than 2,000 signatures. Wilson is from Chicago and has qualified for Democratic presidential primary ballots in California, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas.

Wilson tried and failed in two states so far this year, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Martin O’Malley has withdrawn his name from the Maryland Democratic presidential primary, and Robert H. Heller, Jr., has withdrawn his name from the Maryland Republican presidential primary. But other Republicans who have announced that they are no longer running have not bothered to withdraw their names from Maryland’s primary, including Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum.

The pattern seems to be that when major party presidential candidates end their campaigns, they only act to remove their names (if it isn’t too late) from the ballot of their home state, but they don’t exert the effort to withdraw from other states’ presidential primaries.