On March 6, the Third Circuit heard oral arguments in Constitution Party v Aichele, 13-1952. This is the case in which the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties are challenging the unique Pennsylvania system that puts petitioning groups at risk of as much as $110,000 in court costs if they submit a petition that is found not to have enough valid signatures. The hearing went well, and it is very likely that the three judges will find that the plaintiffs do have standing. If that happens, the case will be sent back to the lower court, which had ruled that the parties don’t have standing.

The hearing lasted 45 minutes, and a good number of minor party supporters were in the audience, including Cheri Honkala, the Green Party vice-presidential nominee in 2012. The three judges are Thomas Ambro, Kent Jordan, and Jane Roth.

The Maryland Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs will hear SB 1032 on March 13 at 1 p.m. This is the bill that lowers the number of registered voters a party must have to retain its place on the ballot, from 1% of the state total, to exactly 10,000. The existing 1% registration test for keeping a party on the ballot has never been used by any party other than the two major parties, and requires approximately 40,000 members. If the bill passes, the Libertarian Party would immediately benefit, and the Greens would like to benefit soon, because there are over 8,400 registered Greens.

The Libertarian and Green Parties are on the ballot now, but only because they submitted a petition during 2011, and when a party successfully petitions, it gets the next two elections, so the 2011 petition covers 2012 and 2014. Thanks to Brian Bittner for this news.

On March 5, the Utah legislature passed SB 54. It changes the existing system by which parties nominate candidates. Current law does not permit anyone to run for a party nomination unless he or she does well at a pre-primary convention. But under the bill, anyone could petition onto the primary ballot, regardless of what happened at the party convention, although the petitions would be quite difficult. Statewide candidates would need approximately 28,000 signatures.

The bill also requires parties to let independent voters vote in their primaries, and lets any voter sign a petition to place a candidate on a party primary ballot. It also requires parties to let members cast a convention vote even if the member is not physically present at the convention. See this story.