Alton, Illinois, held city elections on April 9, 2013, and only one name appeared on the ballot for Mayor. However, a candidate who had tried and failed to get on the ballot won the election on write-in votes. See this story. Alton has a population of 27,865. Thanks to Ken Bush for the link.
On April 10, the Maine Supreme Court again heard oral arguments in Nader v The Maine Democratic Party, Wash-10-678. Here is an article about the arguments. The issue is still whether or not Ralph Nader is entitled to a trial in his case against the Democratic Party and its allies for its behavior in 2004, trying to keep him off the ballot in as many states as possible. Here is another article.
On April 4, an ordinance of Gaines Township, Kent County, Michigan, restricting political signs to only twenty square feet, was declared unconstitutional. See this story about the case, which was written before the outcome was known. The plaintiff is a farmer, Vern Verduin, who had placed a large political sign on his own truck trailer, which was parked on his own property. The ACLU helped with the lawsuit. It is not known if the decision will be appealed. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On April 10, several North Carolina legislators from both major parties introduced HB 794, to improve ballot access. The bill lowers the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties, and statewide independent candidates, from 2% of the last gubernatorial vote cast, to one-fourth of 1% of that same base. For 2014, this would reduce the petition from 89,340 signatures to 11,168 signatures.
The bill also moves the petition deadline from mid-May to early July, and lowers the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot from 2% for President or Governor, to one-fourth of 1% for President or Governor. Parties with less than 10% of the voter registration would be permitted to nominate by convention instead of by primary.
Independent candidate petitions for district office would be lowered from 4% of the number of registered voters, to 1%.
If the bill passes as written, the only states that would require more than 50,000 signatures in 2014 for a newly-qualifying party would be California, Georgia, and Oklahoma. Thanks to Brian Irving for the news about the bill.
Early on April 9, the Maryland legislature adjourned for the year. Two bills to vastly increase the difficult of petitioning in Maryland failed to pass. They were HB 493 and SB 673. They had provided that signers of petitions must include their date of birth, and mandated that each page of the petition inform signers that all the information on the petition would be a public record. The bills also made it illegal for the circulator of the petition to sign a petition sheet as a voter. And it would have barred anyone from petitioning unless he or she had first taken a course provided by election officials. Thanks to Paul Jacob for this news.
