Arkansas SB 277 has been introduced. It has four Senate sponsors and 54 House sponsors, and is backed by the Secretary of State. It lowers the number of signatures for a new or previously unqualified party from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to exactly 10,000 signatures. It moves the petition deadline to three weeks before the primary. In presidential years the Arkansas primary is in March; in midterm years it is in May.

It permits the petition to circulate starting January 1 of any odd year, which gives proponents approximately fourteen months. The old law required the petition to be completed in three months.

This bill exists because the old law was held unconstitutional last year.

On February 10, the Montana Senate State Administration Committee defeated SB 200. It would have let candidates for non-partisan office, such as school board and judicial elections, put a party label next to their name on the ballot.

On February 15, the Arizona House Committee on Municipal Oversight and Elections passed HCR 2033. This is a proposed state constitutional amendment that would provide that all qualified political parties shall be permitted to place a nominee on the general election ballot. The vote was 6-4.

If the bill passes, the voters would vote on it. If the voters pass it, that would block any attempt to deprive parties of their ability to nominate candidates, and would therefore prohibit a top-four, top-five, or top-two measure.