The Registrar of Voters of Napa County, California, believes that qualified political parties that choose to have elections for county central committees should be required to pay the administrative costs of those elections. The California Constitution says that election officials shall conduct such elections for parties that want them. See this story. It is somewhat likely that the Secretary of State will issue an opinion on this controversy, and chances are the Secretary of State will rule that parties don’t need to pay for these elections.

Parties that hold such elections are Democratic, Republican, American Independent, Green, and Peace & Freedom. The Libertarian Party does not use government-administered elections for electing party officials. When Americans Elect was on the ballot, it also did not do so.

Five candidates are on the November 3, 2015 ballot for Mayor of Philadelphia, a partisan election. They are the nominees of the Democratic, Republican, and Socialist Workers Parties, and two independents. All five will debate on September 29. See this story. There are three other debates later to which only the Democratic and Republican nominees have been invited. Thanks to Larry Otter for the link.

On September 23, the conference committee of the North Carolina legislature decided that HB 373 will provide that all 2016 primaries will be in March. See this story. Traditionally the state has held primaries for all office in May.

Candidates running in primaries will be required to file by December 21, 2015.

The bill has no effect on the petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties or independent candidates. New party petitions will continue to be due in May, and independent candidate petitions in June. Here is the text of the bill. The bill’s provisions concerning the date of primaries only applies to 2016, not years further into the future. Both houses are expected to vote on the bill on September 24.