The Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties of Pennsylvania are currently fighting the Pennsylvania unique petition-challenge system in federal court. Pennsylvania is the only state in which, if a group submits a petition and challengers claim the petition lacks enough valid signatures, the political party or independent groups are at risk of paying up to $110,000 in court costs if the petition does indeed lack enough valid signatures.

The parties filed in U.S. District Court last year and that Court ruled that the parties lack standing. The three parties then filed an appeal in April 2013. The appeal has been stalled while the Third Circuit was waiting to see if the Pennsylvania Republican Party would again intervene in the case, as the Republicans had intervened in the U.S. District Court. Even though the Third Circuit gave the Republican Party extra time to file a notice of appearance, the party has not done so, and the final deadline for the Republicans to do that has now passed.

Evan Falchuk is trying to create a new party in Massachusetts called the United Independent Party. He also intends to be that party’s gubernatorial candidate in 2014. See this lengthy story about him and his new party in the Springfield daily newspaper, The Republican.

On July 22, the North Carolina Senate amended HB 589, an omnibus election law bill, to include a repeal of public funding for judicial candidates, and a repeal of the state income-tax checkoff that lets taxpayers send a small donation to the political party of the taxpayer’s choice. The bill already contained many other provisions that will make the voting process more difficult for many voters. See this article, describing many of the provisions of the bill.

The bill also revises ballot access for presidential primaries. Current law requires a presidential candidate to have qualified for primary season matching funds, in order to be on a presidential primary ballot without having to submit a petition. The bill would provide that any candidate generally discussed in national news media should be on the presidential primary ballot, regardless of whether he or she has qualified for primary season matching funds.

The bill repeals the straight-ticket device. It also changes the order of parties on the ballot. Current law says that parties with registration of at least 5% are on the ballot in alphabetical order of the party name, which means the Democratic Party is always listed first. The bill changes that, so that among parties with registration of at least 5%, the party that last elected the Governor is listed first.

The bill makes it somewhat easier for a candidate to get on a primary ballot without paying a filing fee. Current law requires 10,000 signatures for statewide office, for candidates who don’t wish to pay the filing fee. If the candidate is a member of a newly-qualifying party, in order to avoid the filing fee the candidate needs either 10,000 signatures of any registered voters (regardless of party membership) or 10% of party members, whichever is greater. The bill lowers the 10,000 signatures for newly-qualifying parties to 8,000 signatures or 5% of party members. For district office, current law is at 10% and 200 signatures, but the bill lowers the 10% to 5%. The only practical difference this change makes is that, if the bill passes, it lessens the burden for members of new parties who want to run for U.S. House and who wish to avoid the filing fee.

The bill is expected to pass in the next two days, before the legislature adjourns.