On February 8, the Pennsylvania elections office announced that it has re-designed the petition form for candidates seeking to get on a primary ballot. The new form no longer says that the circulator lives in the particular district or jurisdiction in which the candidate is running. Although both primary and general election petitions in Pennsylvania can only be circulated by residents of Pennsylvania, at least circulators can now live anywhere in Pennsylvania, whether they are circulating primary petitions or general election petitions.

This liberalization had already been made some years ago for general election petitions. It was odd that Pennsylvania had continued to enforce the in-district residency requirement for circulators for primary petitions, but not general election petitions.

The form was changed in response to a federal lawsuit filed on November 1, 2013, Villa v Aichele, eastern district, 13-6374. The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed after the state agreed not to enforce the residency requirement.

As recently as 2010, the only Republican running for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s First District had been kept off the primary ballot because some of her petitioners had not lived in the First District.

According to this story, some Nebraska legislators want to move the primary from May to April. There is no bill to make that change, but Senator John Murante already has an election law bill, LB 1048, and he may amend his bill to make the date change. Thanks to FrontloadingHQ for the news.

Nebraska’s primary has been in May since 1956. Before then, it was in April in presidential years and August in midterm years.

Alabama holds an election for U.S. Senate in 2014. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions is running for re-election. For the first time in Alabama history, the Democrats are not running anyone for U.S. Senate. Here is a list of Democrats running in the June 2014 primary for federal and state office.

There are no Democrats running for U.S. House in the 4th and 5th districts. For the 140 state legislative races, no Democrats are running in 57 races. There are no Democrats running for these additional statewide posts: Justice of the Supreme Court, Public Service Commissioner seat #1, and Public Service Commissioner seat #2.

Because of Alabama’s severe ballot access laws, it is likely that no minor party or independent candidate will be on the ballot for U.S. Senate or any other statewide race in Alabama either. The petition deadline in midterm years is more lenient than it is in presidential election years. In 2014, it is due June 3, but 44,829 valid signatures are required. If a minor party could get on the ballot for U.S. Senate, chances are that it would poll 20%, which would put it on the ballot automatically for 2016.

Meanwhile, the Alabama House Constitution and Elections Committee has passed HB 268, which moves the independent petition deadline from primary day, to the day on which major party candidates file for the primary. If the bill were to pass, in 2016 the independent petition deadline (for office other than president) would move from March to December of the year before the election. Even the March petition deadline is at risk of being held unconstitutional, and a deadline of December of the year before would obviously be unconstitutional. HB 268 is sponsored by Representative David Standridge (R-Hayden). Primary candidates in Alabama do not need to petition for a place on the ballot; they pay a filing fee. HB 268 not only moves the deadline months earlier, it requires independent candidates to pay a filing fee.