On April 19, the Arizona Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, filed this brief in Arizona Democratic Party v No Labels. The case is in Maricopa County Superior Court, cv2023-4832.

The brief defends the Secretary of State’s determination that No Labels is a qualified party in Arizona. It points out that the statute contains no provision for anyone to challenge the petition of a newly-qualifying party. It also points out that the law does not demand that affidavits from ten persons (requesting that the new party be recognized) be filed only after the petition is filed. And it makes the point that the wording of the affidavits is not spelled out in the election code.

Finally, it says that even if it were true that the affidavits should not be filed until the petition is complete, No Labels appears to have had enough valid signatures collected before the affidavits were filed.

On April 20, the California Assembly Elections Committee passed AB 1227 unanimously. It lets Santa Clara County use ranked choice voting for elections to elect county officers. The vote was unanimous.

Santa Clara County is the most populous county in northern California. Voters of Santa Clara County approved using RCV in 1998, but it has never been implemented because until 2022, the county’s voting equipment couldn’t handle RCV. But in 2022, the county elections office determined that the voting system software could handle RCV.

On April 21, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed HB 2053, which provides for presidential primaries in 2024 for parties that are already entitled to hold primaries for other office. The bill had been defeated in the House on April 3, but on April 4 the House reconsidered and passed the bill. Candidates need a filing fee of $10,000, or 5,000 signatures. They must also have filed a declaration of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.

The presidential primaries are not mandatory, but it is expected that both major parties will choose to have them. The 2024 primaries will be March 19. The bill only concerns the year 2024, and there is still no law that would provide for presidential primaries in years later than that.