On February 20, the Oklahoma House Rules Committee passed HB 2134. The vote was 7-0 and the Committee did not amend the bill. The bill lowers the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party to exactly 5,000 signatures.

Two years ago, the same Committee also passed a similar bill (HB 1058), but first amended it to raise it to 22,500 signatures. Thus, it appears the Oklahoma House is more in favor of ballot access reform now than it was two years ago. Two years ago, the House passed the bill at 22,500, probably thinking the Senate would see that as a compromise between 5,000 and 5% of the last vote cast. But the Senate spurned the compromise and refused to pass any bill other than 5% of the last gubernatorial vote. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.

On February 18, the Kansas House passed HB 2130, which repeals the Kansas ban on out-of-state petitioners. The vote was 118-1. This bill exists because the Constitution Party won a ballot access lawsuit in 2011 against the out-of-state circulator ban.

On February 19, the Montana House State Administration Committee heard HB 436, which would establish a top-two system for all partisan office except President. No one testified for it except a state legislator. Four Libertarians testified against the bill, as did the Secretary of State.

In Montana, committees do not vote on bills at the hearing; there will probably be a committee vote within a week. Thanks to Mike Fellows for this news. UPDATE: here is a short news story about the hearing. FURTHER UPDATE: here is a much more detailed news article about the hearing.