On April 13, the Maryland legislature adjourned for the year. Neither ballot access bill passed. SB 240, which provided that petition signatures are valid even if the voter didn’t sign exactly as he or she signed the voter registration form, had passed the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee on April 12. But it didn’t advance any further. SB 710, to lower the number of signatures for a new party from 10,000 to 5,000, didn’t make any headway at all.

The legislature did pass HB 496/SB 400, and on April 13, the Governor signed it into law. It says that for redistricting purposes, prisoners should be counted as residents of their homes before they were incarcerated, instead of as residents of the prison. Maryland is the first state in the nation to pass such a law. This type of law reduces the artificial advantage given to areas that have prisons, when the legislature draws U.S. House and state legislative districts.

This Quinnipiac Poll, released April 12, shows that Andrew Cuomo, the presumed Democratic Party nominee for Governor of New York, has a more than 2:1 lead over each potential Republican nominee for Governor. Cuomo’s lead over Rick Lazio is 55% to 26%, and the Cuomo lead over other potential Republicans is even greater.

Assuming this race doesn’t change much, 2010 will be a very favorable environment for minor parties that are not ballot-qualified to become ballot-qualified. New York gives groups only one method to become ballot-qualified: to poll at least 50,000 votes for Governor. Voters tend to be aware of polls, and when voters realize the race is, in realistic terms, already settled, they are more willing to vote for a minor party.

The last time a New York gubernatorial race was so overwhelmingly one-sided, in 1990, both the New Alliance Party and the Libertarian Party polled more votes for Governor of New York than at any time in their history, both before and after. In 1990, the New Alliance Party polled 31,089 votes for Governor and the Libertarian Party polled 24,611 votes. Neither party reached the 50,000 vote goal in 1990, but they came closer in 1990 than in any other year.

The New Alliance Party no longer exists as a political party, but the same people who comprised the New Alliance Party are still working together, in the Committee for a Unified Independence Party (CUIP), which seems to be gradually changing its name to Independent Voting.

On April 8, the California State Court of Appeals in Sacramento refused to hear the lawsuit Fuller v Bowen, C064622. This is the case over whether the California Constitutional provision requiring candidates for the legislature to have lived in the district for a full year before the election violates the U.S. Constitution. The Superior Court had ruled that that part of the State Constitution does violate the U.S. Constitution.

Heidi Fuller, who brought the case, is appealing to the State Supreme Court.