Here is the 20th in a series of Election Law Roundups from Walter Olson of the Cato Institute.
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On March 18, the Michigan Senate passed SB 697, which lowers the number of signatures for statewide independent candidates from 30,000 to 15,000. The old requirement had been declared unconstitutional several years ago, so in the meantime, the court had imposed 12,000 signatures.
Also on March 18, the Senate passed SB 693, which moves the non-presidential primaries from August to May. Fortunately Michigan does not tie the primary date to the deadline for petitions for new parties or independent candidates, so the bill has no impact on those filing deadlines.
According to this story, Antonio Villaraigosa, who has been excluded from the California gubernatorial debate of March 24, will sue the debate organizers if the organizers don’t expand the list of invited candidates.
Villaraigosa is a former Speaker of the California Assembly and a former two-term Mayor of Los Angeles. His attorney is Eric George of Los Angeles.
On March 17, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed SB 63, the bill that prohibits any local government from using Ranked Choice Voting for elections for its own officers.
The New Jersey Supreme Court refused to hear the fusion lawsuit, In re Tom Malinowski, on December 9, 2025. The plaintiffs asked for rehearing on January 9, 2026. The State Supreme Court hasn’t yet responded. Usually courts deny requests for rehearing within a few weeks.