On March 9, the Oklahoma Senate unanimously passed SB 375. It moves the date of the non-presidential primary from the last Tuesday in June to the third Tuesday in June. Assuming it becomes law, it would also automatically move the declaration of candidacy deadline for non-presidential independent candidates a week earlier. In Oklahoma, non-presidential independent candidates don’t need a petition; they just file a declaration of candidacy and a filing fee.

SB 375 does not change the petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties, which would continue to be March 1.

On March 8, U.S. District Court Judge Mark R. Hornak, an Obama appointee, permanently enjoined Allegheny County from invalidating local initiatives on the basis that the petitions were gathered by someone from outside Pennsylvania. OpenPittsburgh.org v Voye, w.d., 2:16cv-01075. This case is very old and had been filed in 2016.

Here is the 13-page order, which lists other lawsuit decisions recently that struck down bans on out-of-state circulators, including two in 2022, from Maine and Montana. The order does not declare the Pennsylvania ban on out-of-state circulators to be unconstitutional, only because of procedural reasons, but it makes it clear that if the court had been asked to declare it unconstitutional, it would have been declared unconstitutional.

On March 17, a federal lawsuit was filed against a new Idaho law that removes student ID Cards from the list of approved types of voter ID. March for our Lives v McGrane, 1:23cv-107. The lawsuit was filed the very day the bill was signed into law. Here is the Complaint. Thanks to Democracy Docket for the link.