On March 20, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed SB 69, which injures ballot access for newly-qualifying parties and independent candidates.  The bill had passed the legislature on a party-line vote, with Republicans supporting the bill and Democrats opposing it.

The bill says members of qualified parties can no longer sign an independent candidate’s petition.  No other state currently has such a requirement.  Arizona passed this restriction in 1993, but it was declared unconstitutional in 1999.

The bill also moves the deadline for a newly-qualifying party from the last Tuesday in March to the first Tuesday in March.  For 2016, the deadline moves from March 29 to March 1.  South Dakota generally has harsh winters, and the bill requires a new party that is formed at the beginning of an election year to gather over 7,000 valid signatures in winter weather.

The deadline for a new party was put into April in 1984, and in 2007 moved to late March.

On November 7, 2014, an Iowa woman who is barred from registering to vote because of a past conviction involving drug laws filed a lawsuit to have the Iowa restriction on ex-felon voting clarified, if not overthrown.  On February 5, the state district court in Polk County denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case.  On March 18 it set a trial date of July 2, 2015.  The case is Griffin v Branstad, EQCE 077368.  Here is a news story from last year, when the case was filed.

Iowa laws on which crimes cause disenfranchisement are very unclear.  The case is based on the State Constitution.

Here is the text of the letter sent to the Commission on Presidential Debates earlier this year, signed by many influential Americans.  The letter asks that the Commission on Presidential Debates liberalize access to the general election presidential debates.