On the evening of March 5, the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee passed HB 2379, which is the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill. Among other things, it imposes a requirement that presidential primary candidates need 1,000 signatures, unless they have qualified for primary season matching funds or are already on the ballot in the presidential primaries of 20 other states. For parties which have a presidential primary but have fewer than 50,000 registered members, any registered voter can sign the 1,000-signature petition. But for parties with over 50,000 registered members, only party members may sign.

Current law lets anyone on a presidential primary ballot who applies and who certifies that he or she has an Arizona campaign committee.

The hearing in Rubin v Bowen, which had been set for March 6 in Superior Court in Alameda County (at the Oakland Courthouse) has been postponed until April 10. This is the case against the California “top-two” system (Proposition 14), filed by the Peace & Freedom Party, the Libertarian Party of California, and the Alameda County Green Party. It is the only case against any state’s top-two system that has been filed by minor parties exclusively, and which focuses on the exclusion of all but two candidates from the election itself.

This case should not be confused with the lawsuits Field v Bowen, and Chamness v Bowen, which attack two particular details of California’s top-two system: (1) no write-ins; (2) discriminatory policy on ballot labels. Chamness v Bowen is pending in the 9th circuit.

On March 6, the Maine Joint Taxation Committee will hold a work session on LD 1826, a bill to abolish Maine’s state income tax check-off that lets taxpayers choose to send a small donation to a political party. The Maine Green Party gets approximately half its funding from the state income tax check-off system.

A similar bill in Utah, HB 50, passed the House in January but has not made any headway since then. The Utah legislature adjourns for the year at the end of this week.