Major Timothy F. Johnson, retired, vice-chair of the North Carolina Republican Party and founder and chair of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, has endorsed HB 32, now pending in the North Carolina legislature. The bill cuts the number of signatures for a statewide independent or a newly-qualifying party from 85,379 signatures, to 10,000. The bill has been discussed twice in meetings of the House Election Law & Campaign Finance Committee, and will probably pass out during May. For more about Johnson, see here.

The bill is also supported by the League of Women Voters, the ACLU, and Common Cause of North Carolina.

The South Carolina Republican Party has set a filing fee to appear on next year’s presidential primary ballot at $25,000 if the candidate pays by May 3, or $35,000 for candidates who pay later. The primary itself is expected to be in February 2012. As of mid-day April 26, no candidate has paid yet.

The 2011 session of the South Carolina legislature still has not finalized the state budget, so it is not certain whether the taxpayers will pay for administering the primary, or whether the party will, or whether both will help pay for it. In 2008 the state government paid for the primary administration, and the party turned over the filing fees to the state treasury. Before 2008, the party paid for the administration of the presidential primary.

Fox News is hosting a Republican presidential debate in Greenville, South Carolina, on May 5, at 9 p.m. Candidates must have paid the filing fee in order to be admitted to the debate, and must have filed with the Federal Election Commission. Also, they must be at or above 1% in public opinion polls. The party and Fox News say they expect Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Buddy Roemer, and Tim Pawlenty, to participate. However, none of those candidates has met all the requirements for participation in the debate yet. Some observers believe the debate will be postponed.

On the evening of April 25, the Tennessee House unanimously passed HB 794, which makes very small improvements to ballot access. No amendments were proposed or considered. It is clear that it is the Senate, not the House, that will take a serious look at the bill. The identical bill in the Senate, SB 935, has seven amendments pending, which will be debated on April 28.

Tennessee must revise its ballot access laws for new and minor parties because the existing law was invalidated last year. It is obvious to anyone who reads last year’s decision that the bills in their present form still do not pass constitutional muster. Last year’s decision said explicitly that a petition deadline four months before the primary is too early, but this bill sets a deadline four months before the primary. The Senate amendments do not improve the deadline but they do propose a substantially lower number of signatures. One of the amendments proposes 10,000; another amendment proposes 6,000. The existing unamended bills require over 40,000 signatures, the same number as in the existing law.

Also on the evening of April 25, the legislature passed HB 612, which moves the presidential primary from February to March. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for that news.