Although British press coverage of the 7-party debate on April 2 has been extensive, no U.S. news outlet seems to have covered the event. If anyone finds a link to a U.S. newspaper that does mention the debate, please comment. UPDATE: Gene Armistead sent me this link, by the Associated Press, but it appears to have been written minutes before the debate started, instead of afterwards. The story switches tenses throughout, between what happened and what is expected to happen.

UPDATE: here is a link to the 2-hour debate, from Green Party Watch.

Here is a BBC news story on the aftermath of the debate, with quotations from leaders of all seven parties on their reactions to the debate.

On March 5, Maine State Senator Roger Katz (R-Augusta) introduced LD 744, to let independent voters vote in any party’s primary ballot. The bill has nine co-sponsors and is pending in the Joint Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs. Here is a copy of the bill, which is only three sentences long. The bill does not say that independent voters can sign a petition to get a candidate on a primary ballot.

Other states that tell parties they must let independents vote in their primaries, even if those independents don’t join the party on primary day, include Arizona, Massachusetts, and Nebraska. Currently, any Maine voter can join a qualified party on primary election day and vote in its primary. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the news.

Early in morning of April 3, during the last few hours of the 2015 Arizona legislative session, the State Senate again defeated SCR 1001, the bill to ask voters in November 2016 if they wish to end the campaign funding program. See this story. The bill had almost passed on March 11, and another vote had been called for. The April 3 vote was 29 in favor and 27 opposed, but it failed because bills in the Senate need at least 31 votes.