According to this story, on March 9, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee will discuss whether to amend some other election law bill, by adding a provision that requires presidential candidates to submit a copy of a birth certificate.
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According to this story, a New York State Supreme Court Justice has frozen $200,000 of funds that are in the bank account of the New York Independence Party.
Wyoming does not permit a petition for a new party to start circulating until April 1 of the odd year before the election year. Two parties that are not now ballot-qualified in Wyoming are getting ready to start. They will each need 3,734 valid signatures. They are the Constitution Party and the Country Party.
The Constitution Party is an old party that has never before qualified as a party in Wyoming. It tried very hard in 2010, but Wyoming requires more signatures to qualify a party in midterm years than in presidential years. The party fell short of obtaining the 2010 requirement of 4,988 signatures.
The Country Party is a new party that only exists in Wyoming. The Constitution Party preparations have received publicity; see this story in the Billings Gazette.
On February 9, the Colorado House postponed indefinitely HB 1012. It would have let independent voters vote in any partisan primary without joining that party. Current Colorado law lets an independent voter vote in a primary, but only if he or she joins that party at the polls on primary day.
On March 8, the Alabama Senate Constitution, Campaign Finance, Ethics & Elections Committee passed SB 17. This is Senator Cam Ward’s bill to lower the number of signatures needed for ballot access (for office other than President) from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5%. Thanks to Josh Cassity for this news. UPDATE: the 1.5% applies to statewide independent candidates. The petition for new and previously unqualified parties would be 1.5% or 5,000 signatures, whichever is less.