On January 9, Alabama State Senator Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) reintroduced the same ballot access bill he had introduced in 2013. This year, the bill is SB 70. It lowers the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties and non-presidential independent candidates from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. It also eases the petition deadline for newly qualifying parties, from primary day, to three weeks after the run-off primary. In a presidential election year, when the first primary is in March, that would put the deadline in early May. In a midterm year, the deadline would be in early August.

On January 13, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Republican Party of Nevada v Miller, 13-442. This is the case in which some Republican nominees for presidential elector in 2012, and the state party, and some voters who want to vote for “None of these candidates” were told that they lack standing. They wanted to challenge the Nevada rules that say that even if “none of these candidates” wins, that has no effect. The plaintiffs argued that, therefore, voters who vote for “none of these candidates” are not being treated equally with other voters.

This Detroit Free Press article says that Michigan’s Republican Governor, Rick Snyder, and key Republican legislative leaders, refused to disavoy the idea that the Republican-majority legislature might pass a bill, letting each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

The article should have mentioned that Michigan has a referendum process, and if such a bill passed, the Democratic Party of Michigan and its allies are capable to qualifying a referendum vote on the bill.