Only 30 states have held presidential primaries so far this year (counting the District of Columbia as a state). Twelve more states will be holding presidential primaries for at least one party. Future presidential primary dates are:

April 22: Pennsylvania
May 6: Indiana, North Carolina
May 13: Nebraska, West Virginia
May 20: Kentucky, Oregon
May 27: Idaho
June 1: Puerto Rico (Democrats only)
June 3: New Mexico (Republicans only), Montana, South Dakota

The only minor party presidential primaries to come are the Green and Constitution primaries in Nebraska. The Libertarian and Constitution Parties could have had their own presidential primaries in Idaho and Montana, but they chose not to, since those parties will have nominated before then.

On April 6, Democratic Party National Chair Howard Dean said any resolution of delegates for Florida and Michigan will be after all the presidential primaries have been held.

The North Carolina Libertarian Party believes it finally has enough valid signatures on its petition. It has been working for over three years to meet the requirement of 69,734. It has collected approximately 102,500.

Assuming the petition is complete, this will be the largest numerical ballot access hurdle that any new or minor party has overcome since 1995, when the Reform Party and the Natural Law Party both complied with California’s requirement of 89,007 registrations.

North Carolina is a fast-growing state. The requirement, 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, shot up from 58,842 to 69,734 after the November 2004 election, because the 2004 turnout was so much better than the 2000 turnout. North Carolina elects its governors in presidential election years, when turnout is highest.

The Libertarian Party also hopes to be done with its Nebraska petition within the next 10 days.

Two US House seats (the 1st and the 6th) in Louisiana are vacant. The state will fill both of them on May 3, a Saturday. The 6th district race will have four candidates on the ballot (a Republican, a Democrat, two independents, and a Constitution Party member). The 1st district race will have a Republican, an Independent American Party member, and an independent.