On February 5, this 17-page brief was filed in U.S. District Court in Hall v Bennett, m.d., 2:13cv-663. This is the lawsuit over whether Alabama can require independent candidates in special elections to submit signatures equal to 3% of the last vote cast. The lawsuit does not contest the legitimacy of the 3% petition in regular elections, but argues that the petitioning period in special elections is so much shorter than in regular elections, the normal petition requirement must be eased in special elections.

At the oral argument in November 2014, the judge asked both sides whether it is true that all special congressional elections have a short petitioning period. In response, the plaintiffs showed that it was much shorter in each of the last five special congressional elections held in Alabama. The state then filed a response, criticizing the plaintiffs for only providing data for 5 special elections, when there have been 18 special congressional elections in Alabama history since government-printed ballots have been in use. The latest brief by plaintiffs therefore did research all the way back to 1904 to demonstrate that, yes, all special Alabama congressional elections always have a short period between the creation of the vacancy and the date of the special election. This should be an obvious point, but it has now been documented.

Eleven South Dakota legislators, all Republicans, have introduced SB 166. It would change the number of signatures for a statewide initiative from 5% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 5% of the number of registered voters. If enacted, this would almost double the number of signatures needed.

On February 5, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee heard testimony on HB 665, which eases ballot access for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The bill lowers the petition for all partisan office to one-tenth of 1% of that area’s population. For statewide office, in this decade, it would lower the petition from 3,000 to 1,317 signatures.

Three witnesses testified in favor of the bill, and written testimony pointed out that in November 2014, New Hampshire was one of only five states with a Democratic-Republican ballot monopoly for all the statewide offices (the others were California, Alabama, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania). Also, in 2006, New Hampshire was one of only four states with a Dem-Rep monopoly for all the statewide offices. And in 2004, Libertarian Party presidential nominee Michael Badnarik was on the ballot in every state except New Hampshire and Oklahoma.

The only witness who testified against HB 665 was Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan, who works under Secretary of State Bill Gardner. Gardner has been Secretary of State since 1979, and was in office in 1981 when the legislature increased the statewide petition from 1,000 to 3,000 signatures.

The committee seemed favorably disposed toward the bill, but wants to entertain a few amendments to the bill.