As of April 30, the Oklahoma State Election Board has determined the number of registered voters in each party: Democratic 942,388; Republican 850,560; Americans Elect 5; independent 234,141.

The Oklahoma voter registration form has a blank line in the “political party” section, so anyone can register into any party, by writing in a selection in the blank line. However, the state will only tally the number of registered voters for the qualified parties, plus they will tally the number in an unqualified party if it has been on the ballot in the previous four years. No party has been ballot-qualified in Oklahoma other than the Democrats and Republicans since November 2000, except that Americans Elect qualified in March 2012.

On May 17, the Michigan State Court of Appeals held a hearing in the lawsuit over whether a referendum petition is valid. The State Board of Canvassers had invalidated the petition, even though it had 200,000 signatures, because of an allegation that the font size on the petition was incorrect. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link. Supporters of the referendum filled the courtroom.

On May 16, the Alabama legislative session ended. SB 15, the ballot access reform bill, did not pass. The bill made more progress this year than it ever has before. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly and the House committee unanimously. But it never got a House vote.

The legislature is now in a special session, but no bills can be dealt with in the special session that were not named on the Governor’s list, unless the bill sponsor gets unanimous consent to introduce it.