The Nashville/Davidson County Libertarian Party has set up this web page to help Tennessee activists lobby for a new, better ballot access law for minor parties. As the page explains, the old law was declared unconstitutional last year. The page also features an ideal new law. The wording for the new law is identical to what was introduced in the 2007 session of the legislature. The 2007 bills, SB 288 and HB 626, did not pass.

A bill to revise the old, unconstitutional law, SB 129, has been introduced this year already, but it is not as good as the 2007 bills. SB 129 would still require new parties to nominate by primary; it would leave in place the March petition deadline; it would require 16,017 signatures; and it keeps the old state policy that assumes someone who merely signs the petition to put a party on the ballot is considered a member of that party. Furthermore, SB 129 says voter registration forms in Tennessee should begin to ask voters to choose a party (or to choose independent status), which is a different subject than ballot access and which ought to be in a separate bill.

On February 1, the North Carolina Free the Vote Coalition held a well-attended press conference outside the North Carolina legislative office building. See here. The purpose of the press conference was to publicize the introduction of the bill to improve ballot access for independent candidates and new and previously unqualified parties. The bill was introduced on February 2 and is HB 32. Also see this AP story.

North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Wyoming are the only states in which neither “Green Party” or “Constitution Party” (or any of the Constitution Party’s alternate names in certain states) have ever appeared on any ballot. Even in Georgia, the Green Party has been on the ballot in at least one local partisan race.

Ever since 1974, when the District of Columbia started holding elections for its city officials, the primary for the partisan offices has been in September of even-numbered years. But last year Congress passed a law that virtually requires that all partisan primaries involving federal offices must be held no later than August. City councilmember Mary Cheh has said she will introduce a bill to move the D.C. primary to July. She doesn’t want an August primary because many people are on vacation on August.

However, many D.C. voices are opposed to a July primary, because the Democratic Party is so overwhelmingly dominant in District of Columbia elections that the Democratic Party primary effectively chooses the winner in virtually all the contests. Having the primary in July would leave a long period between the point at which winners are virtually determined, and the point at which they would begin to serve in office (January of the following year).

Mark Jordan has this article in Greater Greater Washington, advocating that Washington city elections be converted to non-partisan elections, with only a single round in November, using Instant Runoff Voting.

The D.C. presidential primary date is also up for a change. In 2008 the presidential primaries in D.C. were on February 8, but the major party national committees won’t recognize such an early date for presidential primaries in most places. Some would like to combine the D.C. presidential primary with the primary for other office, but the two major parties also insist that presidential primaries be held no later than June.