News reports indicate that five individuals probably submitted enough signatures to be on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots on April 30, for the special Massachusetts U.S. Senate election. The primaries are on April 30 and the election will be on June 25. The deadline for primary petitions was February 27.

Three Republicans submitted signatures: Dan Winslow submitted approximately 25,000; Gabriel Gomez submitted the same number; Michael Sullivan submitted approximately 20,000. The requirement is 10,000. Two Democrats, both members of the U.S. House, also submitted substantial petitions; they are Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch.

Independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, also need 10,000 signatures, but they aren’t due until early April.

On February 27, the Oklahoma Senate unanimously passed SB 668, which eases ballot access for newly-qualifying parties in midterm years, but does not reduce the number of signatures in presidential years. Current law says the number of signatures is 5% of the last vote cast. If the bill passes in this form, the law would require 5% of the last gubernatorial vote. For 2014, the number of signatures would change from 66,744 to 51,739.

Oklahoma is the only state with a mandatory petition for newly-qualifying parties that is higher than 3% of the last gubernatorial vote.

Scotusblog’s eye-witness reporter in the U.S. Supreme Court oral argument (in Shelby County, Alabama v Holder) predicts that five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will vote to invalidate the coverage formula for section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act. If this happens, Congress would be faced with the question of whether to write a new coverage formula. If Congress did nothing, then presumably Section 5 could no longer be enforced. Section five of the Voting Rights Act is the part of the Act that requires certain states and local jurisdictions to get permission from the federal government before changing any election law or practice.

UPDATE: here is the transcript.