New York city is holding a special election for city council, 31st district, on February 19. In New York city, even though elections are partisan, special city council elections are conducted without party nominees. All candidates appear on the ballot with their party label, if they obtain at least 450 valid signatures. Nine candidates filed, but one candidate, Jacques Leandre, then challenged the petitions of six of his opponents. See this story. The story does not explain the basis for the challenge. Leandre, in defense of his action, reminds people that President Obama challenged his opponents’ petitions in 1996 when he first ran for public office. Obama challenged all his opponents off the primary ballot when he was running for State Senate.

Only one of the candidates has been knocked off the ballot. See this story.

Republicans who wish to get on the Republican primary ballot for the Massachusetts U.S. Senate special election must obtain 10,000 valid signatures by February 27. According to this story, there is some concern that no Republican will be able to fulfill the task. Of course, the legislature is sitting, and is capable of passing ballot access reform, and making the bill effective immediately. UPDATE: here is an article about the coming blizzard in New England that will make petitioning even more difficult.

Here are the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s instructions for candidates in the special election. The nominees of unqualified parties, and independent candidates, also need 10,000 valid signatures, but not until April 3.

It is conceivable that any candidate running in the primary might file a lawsuit to reduce the number of signatures. The decision of the U.S. District Court in Illinois dated February 1, 2013, called Jones v McGuffage, said that it is unconstitutional to impose the same number of signatures in a special election (with limited time to collect the signatures) than in a regularly-scheduled election. If this were a regularly-scheduled election, primary candidates could obtain their signatures over a three-month period. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the link to the news story.

Indiana Representative Peggy Manfield (R-Martinsville) has introduced HB 1311. It would provide that Indiana public university students who paid the out-of-state tuition fee could not register to vote in Indiana.

The bill is an example of how state legislators sometimes introduce bills without researching case law. In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dunn v Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330, that states cannot require residents to have lived in that state for more than a month before registering to vote. Indiana rules on out-of-state students will not recognize that a student has moved to Indiana until the student has lived in Indiana for a full year. See this story about the bill.