On March 14, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed HB 1018, which says a ballot-qualified party can cease to be ballot-qualified if both the national chair of the party, and the state chair of the party, sign a notarized statement saying they wish to eliminate the party. The purpose of this bill (which has other, unrelated election law provisions) is to enable Americans Elect to remove itself from the 2014 primary and general election ballots.

It will be interesting to see which individuals, representing Americans Elect, sign these forms. The Secretary of State has no state chair on file for the party. The national party no longer exists either, so it is not clear that anyone can legitimately claim at this time to be the national chair.

The philosophy behind the bill seems to indicate that the ordinary voters of South Dakota who signed the petition, saying they want the party on the ballot, don’t matter. No do the wishes of the South Dakotans who registered as members of the party. The fact that this bill passed shows that state officials don’t really believe in their hearts that a petition to recognize a political party means that a party has support. Of course, if South Dakota ballot access laws were being challenged in court, the state would be quick to say that the state needs a petition in place (one of the most restrictive in the nation, requiring the signatures of 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote) to determine which parties have a modicum of voter support.

On March 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th circuit, heard arguments in Libertarian Party of Virginia v State Board of Elections. Here is a news story about the hearing. The issue is Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators. The U.S. District Court had struck it down last year, and the state then appealed.

The three judges on the 4th circuit panel are Robert B. King (a Clinton appointee), and Albert Diaz and Henry F. Floyd (Obama appointees). All three judges actively participated in the questioning. It is difficult to predict how they will rule. UPDATE: anyone can hear the argument at this link provided by the 4th circuit web page.

On March 18, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signed SB 690, which lowers the number of signatures for all presidential candidates (both presidential primary and general election) from 10,000 signatures to 5,000 signatures.

Indiana now has the most difficult mandatory presidential primary petition requirement in the nation. Indiana requires 4,500 signatures, with 500 signatures from each of the nine U.S. House districts. Although 4,500 is a lower number than 5,000, the Indiana requirement, as a percentage of the number of votes in the state, is higher than the equivalent percentage in Virginia. Also the Indiana distribution requirement is far more difficult than the Virginia distribution requirement. The Virginia distribution requirement is now 200 signatures from each of the eleven U.S. House districts.

Very soon, a bill will be introduced in the North Carolina legislature to lower the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties and independent candidates. The fact that Virginia now requires only 5,000 signatures for presidential candidates in the general election will be useful, as North Carolina legislators consider whether they should relax the requirement of 89,430 signatures to approximately 11,000 signatures.