In most states, legislatures convene this month. The commonest start date among the states is January 13 or January 14. See this chart from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

There are bills to improve ballot access laws pending or expected to be introduced this year in Alabama, California, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. There could be many more states with helpful bills. Now is the time for activists to communicate with state legislators, asking for bills to improve the laws. There are problems with the ballot access laws in most states.

On January 5, Congressman Mel Watt of North Carolina resigned from the U.S. House. On January 6, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said the special election to fill his seat will be held on November 4, 2014. See this story. The Governor said it would be too expensive to hold a special election earlier.

McCrory is a Republican. The seat is considered a safe Democratic seat, and Watt is a Democrat. UPDATE: see this analysis of the state’s decision to postpone the election until November 2014.

December 31, 2013, was the deadline for Americans Elect to increase its registration to one-fifteenth of 1%, if it wanted to avoid being removed from the California ballot. Leaders of Americans Elect were aware of this deadline, but took no action to increase the party’s registration, so the party is now disqualified. The official announcement won’t be until the Report of Registration is complete, but it is obvious from partial data from certain counties that Americans Elect has only approximately 5,000 registrants or fewer, and it needs approximately 12,000 to remain on the ballot.

The only other parties that were ever removed from the California ballot on the grounds that they failed to have registration of one-fifteenth of 1% of the state total, at the beginning of an election year, were the Communist Party in early 1944, and the Prohibition Party in early 1964. The one-fifteenth of 1% registration test is in addition to the vote test that is imposed in November of midterm years. The legislature added the one-fifteenth of 1% registration test in 1943, for the purpose of removing the Communist Party from the ballot. The party kept passing the vote test and the legislature wanted to eliminate it, so added that second test.