On May 19, the Louisiana House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs passed HB 420. It moves the deadline for independent presidential candidates to file from the first Tuesday in September, to the first Friday after the first Tuesday in September.

It also revises the deadline for qualified parties to submit their presidential elector candidates. Existing law was ambiguous in 2008. The new law says that if a qualified party fails to submit that party’s candidates for presidential elector by the first Tuesday in September, the national chair of that same party may submit them by the first Friday after the first Tuesday in September.

The old law talked about this 3-day “grace period” for qualified parties not in terms of a particular date, but in terms of “72 hours after the deadline”. Because the Secretary of State in 2008 had extended the deadline because of the storm, and because the Libertarian Party had tried to take advantage of this “grace period”, it was not clear how the 72-hour period should be calculated at instances when the original deadline had been extended. Thanks to Randall Hayes for this news.

The May 23 Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma’s largest daily newspaper, has this story about the failure of the legislature to pass any ballot access reform for minor parties. The story is undoubtably the result of a well-written press release by Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform (OBAR). Thanks to Richard Prawdzienski for the news. As the story and the press release makes clear, Oklahoma has two-year legislative sessions, and the bill (which has already passed both Houses overwhelmingly) has good chances in 2010.

The May 23 edition of the Connecticut Post, a Hearst chain newspaper based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, has this editorial in support of the bill to establish the National Popular Vote Plan.

The Connecticut bill, HB 6437, has passed the House and is pending in the State Senate.