Arizona Representative John Kavnagh (R-Fountain Hills) has introduced HB 2651, which adds a new funding source for the state’s public funding of campaigns program, and which adds some more uses for the program. Here is the text of the bill.

The bill restores an option on the state income tax form for a taxpayer to send $5 to the public funding program. The money would come from the state treasury, not from the taxpayer. The extra money would be used for: (1) new vote-counting equipment; (2) adding 250-word candidate statements to the web page of the agency that runs the public funding program, and pictures of the candidate; (3) paying for state officeholders to send mailings to constituents, although not during the period 90 days before the primary and 90 days before the general election. The provision for candidate statements includes congressional candidates.

According to this story, two candidates for County Commission in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, were denied spots on the Republican primary ballot because Republican Party officials believed they were too friendly with certain Democrats. Read the entire story, including parts near the end. The story also says the party cashed their filing fee checks and, at least at the point the story was written, has not issued a refund.

Both candidates now say they will run as independent candidates.

Two California Democratic State Senators, both of them members of the Senate Elections Committee and both running for Secretary of State this year, say they are concerned about ballot access problems for minor parties. See this story. They seem particularly interested in the problem that the number of signatures for minor parties to get on the primary ballot, in lieu of the filing fee, increased wildly in 2012, due to implementation of the top-two system.