Oklahoma HB 1790 was amended on February 7 to move the presidential primary from February 5 to February 2. HB 1790 is authored by John Trebilcock (R-Broken Arrow) but the amendment was the idea of Trebor Worthen (R-Oklahoma City).

Moving the presidential primary by only three days sounds peculiar, but so many other states are expected to vote on February 5, that the Oklahoma legislators seem to feel Oklahoma would be ignored if it had its primary on the same day as so many other states, whereas it would get a great deal of attention if it were on a day with only one other presidential primary (South Carolina’s Republican primary will also be on Feb. 2). Thanks to The Green Papers for this news.

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Washington state’s appeal in the “top-two” case on February 23. The case is Washington State v Republican Party of Washington, 06-730. Both the U.S. District Court and the 9th circuit had ruled that “top-two” violates the associational rights of political parties, and that if Washington state wants to hold a “top-two” primary, it must leave party labels off the ballot.

Missouri Senator Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) has introduced SB 409, which would require all independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in March of election years. As before, the independent candidate’s petition would continue to be in July. The bill has been referred to the Senate Elections Committee.

The bill is clearly unconstitutional as applied to independent presidential candidates. It is possible that it would be declared unconstitutional as to independent candidates for other office as well. A similar South Carolina law was struck down by the 4th circuit in 1991, but a similar Texas law was upheld by the 5th circuit in 1996. Missouri is in the 8th circuit and there is no controlling precedent. However, in 1976 a 3-judge US District Court invalidated a Missouri law saying independent candidate petitions had to be submitted in April.