On April 19, the Minnesota House passed HF 1830, which doubles the vote test for a party to remain on, from 5% to 10%. All Democrats voted “yes” and all Republicans voted “no.” The bill takes effect immediately. An earlier version of this post said the bill also doubles the petition for party status from 5% to 10%, but that was incorrect.

In 1980, the Eighth Circuit struck down North Dakota’s petition for party status, on the grounds that it must be too difficult because it had only been used once since it had been created in 1939. It consisted of a petition of 15,000 signatures, which worked out to 3.3% of the number of eligible signers at that time. The Minnesota party petition was created in 1913 and has never been used, at least for statewide status. It is possible it was used in the past for a party in just one county, although this is unlikely.

Minnesota is also in the Eighth Circuit. It seems likely that a lawsuit against the 5% petition for party status would succeed if it were filed.

On top of all that, court decisions and administrators have generally considered it to violate due process to increase the test for a party to remain ballot-qualified, unless the effective date is after the next election. The bill would instantly remove the Legal Marijuana Now Party from the ballot, violating the general understanding of due process protection for existing political parties.

A recent Idaho newspaper story explains that the Idaho legislature adjourned without making sense of the Idaho presidential primary. The legislature passed a bill eliminating the March presidential primary, with the expectation that the presidential primary should return to May, when the primary for other office is held. The trouble is, there is nothing in the election code to explain how the May presidential primary would work. The Secretary of State says either the legislature must return to a special session and fix the problem, or there won’t be any presidential primaries in 2024 and the parties will use caucuses.

On April 17, an Oregon group that opposes the ability of parties to have nominees filed paperwork to start an initiative petition drive.
See this story.