On March 23, the North Dakota House amended SCR 4013 and passed it. It had already passed the Senate, but it must return to the Senate because the House changed it. The bill raises the number of signatures for a constitutional amendment from 4% of the population, to 5%. It says constitutional amendments must appear both on the primary ballot and the general election ballot, and they must pass in both elections in order to take effect. It says only North Dakota residents may circulate any type of initiative petition, statutory or constitutional.

But it deleted some harsh features from the Senate version, such as a requirement that all circulators must have lived in the state for four months before the petition starts to circulate, and that constitutional amendments need 67% of the vote in order to pass.

Another North Dakota bill involving initiatives, HCR 3031, was defeated in the House on March 14 by a vote of 29-63. It would have allowed electronic signatures on initiative petitions but would have increased the number of signatures needed for all types of initiative.

On March 10, the Washington state Senate Rules Committee killed SB 5209, the bill to make voting mandatory.

On March 24, the Kansas Senate Federal & State Affairs Committee passed HB 2053, after amending it by stripping out the original content and inserting language setting up a presidential primary. It would be held in March. The presidential primary would only be for the use of parties that are entitled to nominate by primary (i.e., Democrats and Republicans). Smaller qualified parties in Kansas nominate by convention at their own expense.

Another bill, SB 290, which would have set up a presidential primary in May and also moved the non-presidential primary from August to May, failed to pass. That bill would have also moved the independent candidate petition deadline from August to May. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.