On April 3, the Georgia legislature passed SB 92, which contains all the recommendations of the Georgia Secretary of State for election law improvement except for the suggested reduction in the number of signtures for independent and minor party candidates. As reported earlier, the legislature removed the ballot access improvements after the chair of the House Rules Committee said advocates for greater ballot access improvement had been rude to him, so he was removing those parts.

However, the bill as passed has two minor features that could result in more fairness. One provision says that when a candidate pays the filing fee after receiving misinformation from an election official, and he or she is kept off the ballot because of the misinformation, the fee can be refunded. The other provision permits candidates nominated by convention to file earlier in the year if they wish to. Minor parties that polled less than 20% of the vote in the last election, but more than 1% (of the number of registered voters) are permitted to nominate by convention, without the need for a petition, but only for statewide office. This is why Libertarians are always on the Georgia ballot for statewide office. The old law did not permit these convention nominations to be filed until the summer, but now they can be filed earlier if the minor party wishes to file earlier. Thanks to David Shock for this news.

This article describes some small changes in Arizona’s program for public funding of candidates for public office. Opponents of public funding gave up their plan to ask voters to defund the program. In return, HB 2779 is likely to pass. It will end the tax credit for taxpayers who give donations to the program. Supporters of the public funding program say the fund doesn’t need that money anyway.

In other Arizona legislative news, on April 4, the Senate defeated HB 2826, which would have told all municipalities that they must hold their elections in even-numbered years. The bill had already passed the House. However, on April 5, the Senate agreed to reconsider the bill.

South Dakota state courts must quickly decide whether or not five petitions have enough valid signatures. These petition challenges all relate to whether certain candidates should be on the primary ballots of the Republican and Democratic Parties. One challenge concerns a congressional candidate, and the others to legislative candidates. The primary is June 5. See this story. One case has already been adjudicated, and the candidate was found to lack four valid signatures.