On April 1, Meg Whitman, leading in the polls for the California Republican gubernatorial nomination, said that she opposes Proposition 14, the “top-two” ballot measure. She said that she is favorably disposed toward some sort of open primary, but she opposes Proposition 14 because it would lead to so few choices on the November ballot. She specifically criticized Proposition 14 because in some legislative or congressional districts there would be November elections in which no Republican appears on the ballot.

Whitman made this statement in Chico, at one of her public campaign events. Her comments were in response to a question from the audience.

New York will not hold a special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 29th district, according to this story. The incumbent resigned from Congress on March 8, 2010. The state says it doesn’t want to spend $750,000, which is what a special election would cost.

South Dakota requires all qualified parties to nominate by primary for most partisan offices. The Constitution Party is the only ballot-qualified party other than the two major parties.

This year, the Constitution Party attempted to place Peter Boeve on its primary ballot for Governor, and also to place Jim McEntire on its primary ballot for U.S. House. The law says that if a party has not had continuous ballot status for the preceding four years, its statewide candidates need a petition of 250 registered members to get on the party’s primary ballot. However, the Constitution Party only has about 300 registered members in the state. Also each petition must be notarized. The Constitution Party worked very hard, and got 125 signatures for each candidate, but could not get 250 signatures for each, out of a total eligible pool of only 300.

If the party had been continuously ballot-qualified over the last four years, the candidates would have needed petitions of 1% of their own party’s last general election vote for Governor. The Constitution Party’s gubernatorial candidate in November 2006 received 4,010 votes, so if the rule for continuously-established parties had also applied to the Constitution Party, the party’s candidates would only have needed 41 signatures. However, there was a break in the Constitution Party’s ballot-qualified status after November 2006 but before 2008. Because it polled less than 2.5% for Governor in November 2006, it went off the ballot, and it got back on by submitting 8,389 valid signatures in early 2008.

In 2000, when the law was worded differently, the Libertarian Party won a federal lawsuit against the 250-signature requirement. The victory was based not on constitutionality, but on how to construe the law. However, in 2007, the South Dakota legislature re-worded the law, to make it clear that the legislature wants the more stringent 250-signature requirement to apply to parties without continuous ballot status. It is likely that the law, requiring candidates to collect 250 valid signatures from a pool of only 300 eligible signers, is unconstitutional, and it is possible the candidates will sue.

This year, no Democrat is running for U.S. Senate in South Dakota, so Republican incumbent John Thune will be the only candidate on the general election ballot, unless an independent candidate qualifies before the June deadline.