The Ohio Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill, SB 47, has a few provisions that impact ballot access. The bill repeals the ban on out-of-state circulators, for all types of petition. The only remaining requirement for a circulator would be that the circulator is at least 18 years old.

However, it makes it somewhat more difficult for initiatives and referendum to appear on the ballot. Currently, when election official determine that such a petition lacks enough valid signatures, the proponents have ten days to collect more signatures. The bill eliminates the ability to get new signatures during the ten-day period. Instead, the only supplemental signatures that could be submitted would be those that had been collected before the ten-day period, but (for some reason) had not been submitted already.

Also, the bill says that petitions to place a candidate on the ballot must be completed within one year. This is not a serious restriction, because no candidate petition in Ohio requires more than 5,000 signatures. The provision does not relate to petitions for a newly-qualifying party. Thanks to Will Klatt for news of this bill.

Two Maine State Senators and eight Maine Representatives have introduced LD 573, which would amend the State Constitution. Currently Maine permits felons to vote. The amendment would remove voting rights for individuals who were sentenced to at least ten years in prison. If the legislature passes it with a two-thirds vote, then the voters would vote on it. See this story. Thanks to Tom MacMillan for the link.

See this story, which reports on all the individuals and groups who testified against a Maryland bill to make it more difficult for referendum petitions to get on the ballot. The Committee hearing the bill hasn’t acted yet.