On March 4, the South Dakota Senate passed HB 1018, the omnibus election law bill that includes a provision that a ballot-qualified party may remove itself from the ballot. That provision was included so that Americans Elect can revoke its political party status, and avoid being on the 2014 ballot with its own primary.

Also on March 4, HB 1072 was signed into law. It repeals the South Dakota law that makes it a crime for a political party to endorse a candidate for state judge. The South Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice had asked the legislature to repeal the law, because it is probably unconstitutional.

On March 4, five Nevada Republican state legislators introduced SB 212, which provides for a presidential primary for Nevada, to be held in January. The bill also says that the primary for all other partisan office should also be in January, in presidential election years and also in midterm years. No state has ever had its congressional primary that many months before the November election. The bill says the primary should be on the second-to-last Tuesday in January.

Nevada has never had a presidential primary in the past, except in 1996, when it was held on March 26. The bill does not attempt to create an earlier petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties or independent candidates, except for newly-qualifying parties that want their own primary. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.

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.