March 15 was the deadline for candidates in Maine primaries to file petitions. Four Democrats and six Republicans submitted petitions. See this story.
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On March 15, Senator Kevin Raye, the President of the Maine Senate, introduced LD 1882, a bill to create a presidential primary starting in 2016. Maine in the past has not had a presidential primary and has used caucuses instead, except it did have presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000.
The bill says the political parties that want a presidential primary could set the date of the presidential primary, but if they can’t agree, the primaries would be a week later than New Hampshire’s presidential primaries. Candidates would be put on the presidential primary automatically if they are discussed in the news media. There seems to be nothing in the bill that would prevent the Green Party from having a presidential primary. See this story.
On March 14, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman signed LB759, which repeals the ban on out-of-state petition circulators. This appears to be the first ballot access improvement bill that has been signed into law so far this year.
On March 14, the Arizona Senate Government Reform Committee passed HB 2480, after first stripping out all the original contents of the bill (which concerned health insurance), and substituting some election law provisions. They require the national committee of a qualified political party to submit signed statements by the party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees, under penalty of perjury, that the candidates meet the constitutional qualifications. This submission would accompany the normal paperwork that national political party officials send to each state, informing that state of the names of that party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees. The bill, if enacted, would of course apply to the state’s ballot-qualified minor parties as well as the major parties.
The bill’s author, Representative Carl Seel, asked the committee to take this action. If the bill passes the Senate, it will return to the House, because even though the House already passed HB 2480, when the House passed it, it concerned an entirely different subject. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
On March 14, Americans Elect started its Texas petition drive, according to this press release. Texas had been the only state which has a party-petition procedure that Americans Elect had not yet started. A “party-petition procedure” is a petition that does not list any candidates; it just mentions the name of the party and asks voters to sign the petition to put that party on the ballot.
The only remaining places in which Americans Elect has apparently not started petitioning yet are Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. Also Americans Elect hasn’t started its registration drive in Delaware. No petitioning is needed in Louisiana because a presidential nominee of an unqualified party can qualify as late as September, and have the party name on the ballot, with a filing fee of $500. Generally, the states in which Americans Elect isn’t petitioning yet are states that require a presidential candidate’s name on the ballot. Sometimes stand-ins are permitted. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.