On May 1, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano signed SB 630 into law. It moves the mid-September primary (for office other than president) forward to early September. Unfortunately it also moves the independent candidate petition deadline, and the new party petition deadline, to an earlier date. The new party petition is now in early March, and the independent candidate petition is now the first week in June. Arizona already had the 2nd earliest independent presidential deadline in the nation, and now it is earlier. There is no rational reason why the independent candidate petition deadlines should be keyed to the date of the primary. A 2006 bill to move the primary forward, rationally separated the link between the primary date and the independent candidate deadline. Unfortunately the 2007 bill did not contain such a provision.

On May 1, the Hawaii Senate overrode Governor Linda Lingle’s veto of SB 1956. That is the National Popular Vote bill for presidential elections. If the House also overrides her veto, the bill will pass. Of course, no National Popular Vote bill takes effect, in any state, until states comprising a majority of the electoral college have approved the plan. So far, only Maryland has done so.

On May 1, the Election Assistance Commission approved using federal dollars to help states replace vote-counting machines that don’t leave a paper trail. The federal 2002 act called “Help America Vote Act” authorized federal money to the states to replace punchcard vote systems and old-fashioned mechanical voting machines. Until the EAC’s vote, it had not been clear if states could also use this money to replace electronic vote-counting machines that don’t leave a paper trail. The decision had been sought by the state of Florida. The EAC’s action makes it more likely that the Florida legislature will now pass the bill outlawing paperless machines.