Here is a newspaper story about the Americans Elect petition in Iowa. The story, oddly enough, does not mention the detail that the Iowa petition carries stand-in presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Iowa is one of the eleven states in which a group can’t get on the November ballot unless it circulates a petition that lists particular candidates, so Americans Elect is forced to use a pair of stand-ins. The stand-ins in Iowa are not famous individuals and they are not the slightest bit interested in running for office. They are just individuals who are part of the organization and are willingly lending their names.

Alabama SB 15, which improves ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates, may receive a vote in the Alabama Senate on April 10. It was eligible for such a vote on April 3 and April 5, but it didn’t come up because of extremely lengthy debate on various other bills.

The Working Families Party may run New York Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries for U.S. House in the 10th district in Brooklyn, even if Jeffries doesn’t win the Democratic Party primary for that seat. The incumbent, Congressman Edolphus Towns, has been in Congress since 1983, and is running for re-election. The Working Families Party refused to cross-endorse Towns in 2006, 2008, and 2010, although it didn’t run its own nominee against him either those years. See this story.