Joe Kirby of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has filed a proposed initiative that will soon start to circulate. It would provide for a top-two system for South Dakota. Here is the text.

Kirby qualified an initiative similar to this in 2016, which was defeated 44.5%-55.5%. It only carried three counties, even though proponents spent $1,356,720 and opponents only spent $300,745. Most of the money in favor of the measure came from Texas billionaires John and Laura Arnold of Houston, Texas. The 2016 initiative removed all party labels from ballots for office other than president.

South Dakota has never allowed write-in voting. If this initiative were to become law, it is likely that most congressional and legislative races would feature only two Republicans on the general election ballot, and no one else, so Democrats would be largely unable to vote for a member of their party in the general election.

Under current law, independent voters can vote in Democratic primaries, but not Republican primaries. The only other ballot-qualified party, the Libertarian Party, nominates by convention. The proponents of the initiative refer to their initiative as an “open primary”, even though U.S. Supreme Court decisions and political science textbooks define “open primary” to be a system in which each party has its own primary ballot and its own nominees, but any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot.

On March 1, the Arizona House passed HCR 2033, which guarantees that qualified political parties may place nominees on the general election ballot. Here is the text. If it passes the legislature, the voters would vote on it in November 2024. If it becomes part of the Arizona Constitution, it would block any proposed laws that eliminate the ability of parties to have nominees, such as a top-two, top-four or top-five system.

The vote was party-line, with all Republicans voting “yes” and all Democrats voting “no” (except one Democrat didn’t vote). It passed 31-28.

The March 19 issue of the Star Tribune, the daily newspaper for Minneapolis, carries this letter by Edward T. J. Brown criticizing SB 1827 and HF 2802, the identical bills that change the definition of a ballot-qualified party from a group that got 5%, to one that got 10%.

Eight Rhode Island representatives have introduced HB 5721, which would move the non-presidential primary from eight weeks before the general election to the last Tuesday in August. That would move the primary two weeks earlier.

If the bill were enacted, it would also move the petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, two weeks earlier, because the date of those petitions is tied to the date of the primary. However, there would be no impact on the deadline for independent presidential candidates, because the presidential deadline is not keyed to the primary date.

On Saturday, March 18, the New Mexico legislature adjourned. It did not pass SB 73, the bill to let independent voters choose a partisan primary ballot without first joining that party.

The Bemidji Pioneer, a newspaper in the northernmost part of Minnesota, has published this letter to the editor from Rebecca Whiting. The letter criticizes Democrats in the Minnesota legislature for making ballot access worse.

Reason Magazine has this article about the pending request of the New York Green and Libertarian Parties to the U.S. Supreme Court over ballot access.

On March 17, the California Secretary of State released new registration data. This is the last tally California will produce until January 2024. Here is the data. Relative to the last tally in October 2022, all the qualified parties gained slightly in registration, except for the Republican Party. The Common Sense Party, which is not ballot-qualified, declined. The percentage of voters who are independents declined.

The percentages are: Democratic 46.89%; Republican 23.83%; American Independent 3.61%; Libertarian 1.07%; Peace & Freedom .57%; Green .442; independent, miscellaneous and unknown 23.60%.

The percentages in October 2022 were: Democratic 46.87%; Republican 23.85%; American Independent 3.54%; Libertarian 1.05%; Peace & Freedom .56%; Green .439%; independent, miscellaneous and unknown 23.69%.

The Common Sense Party has 24,454 registrants; in October 2022 it had 25,715.

On March 14, a lawsuit was filed against the new District of Columbia law that lets non-citizen adults vote in Washington, D.C. elections for local office. Hall v D.C. Board of Elections, superior court, 2023-CAB-001544. Here is the Complaint. Thanks to Democracy Docket for the link.

Norman Ornstein, a well-known political scientist, and Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor, have jointly written this attack on No Labels, which is published in The Bulwark. Ornstein is a Republican and Aftergut is a Democrat.

On March 17, the Minnesota House Election Finance & Policy Committee held an hour’s hearing on SF 2802, which doubles the vote test for qualified party status from 5% to 10%. The committee did not act on the bill, but seemed to indicate that the provisions of the bill will soon be amended into an omnibus election law bill, which does not exist yet.

Some of the legislators did express some sympathy for the idea of expanding the restrictive two-week petitioning period for non-presidential independent candidate petitions. It is possible that idea may be put into the omnibus bill.

There are uncontradicted court opinions that say it violates due process for a state to stiffen the definition of a qualified party, such that it threatens the status of a minor party, without giving that minor party one more election to try to surmount the new, tougher requirement. The bill would remove the Legal Marijuana Now Party from qualified status, before the 2024 election is held. That aspect of the bill would probably be struck down. In the past, when other states have made the definition of a qualified party more restrictive, and there was a qualified minor party on the ballot at that time, the states made the effective date after the next election; or if they didn’t, the state elections office, or a court, ruled they had to do that. These examples are from Alabama in 1982, Alabama in 1995, Indiana in 1980, Kansas in 1990, Michigan in 1976, Michigan in 1988, New Mexico in 1989, New York in 1935, New York in 2020, North Carolina in 1949, and Ohio in 2013.

On March 10, a state court lawsuit was filed against the new Arkansas law that requires statewide initiatives to contain a high number of signatures from each of 50 counties. King v Thurston, Pulaski County Circuit Court, 60cv-23-1816. The lead plaintiff is an Arkansas State Senator, Bryan King. The League of Women Voters of Arkansas is also a plaintiff.

The State Constitution says that initiatives need signatures from 15 counties, so obviously the legislature would have needed to initiate a constitutional amendment if it wanted signatures from 50 counties. But the legislature did not pass a constitutional amendment; it merely passed a statute. This lawsuit is very likely to win.

On March 16, the Arkansas Senate State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee passed SB 277, the bill to lower the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote (about 27,000 signatures) to exactly 10,000 signatures. The bill had failed in that committee in February, but was brought back.

Georgia holds general election run-offs (except for president) if no one gets 50% of the vote. Two bills to change that have failed to advance, and it is now too late for them to pass. HB 419 would have provided that anyone who gets 45% is elected. SR 211 would have created a joint legislative committee to study run-offs.

On March 3, the Hawaii Senate passed SB 47, which deals with the order of candidates on the ballot. Existing law uses alphabetical order of candidate surnames. The bill changes that for a random procedure to determine which candidates are listed first.

This Vox story by Christian Paz says that independent U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema does have a chance to be re-elected next year, even if she is not a major party nominee.

On March 16, some Florida voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against the Florida law that does not permit anyone to submit a voter registration application that doesn’t bear a “wet ink” signature, except through a Motor Vehicle registration office. Vote.org v Byrd, n.d., 4:23cv-111. Here is the Complaint.

The case is assigned to Judge Allen Winsor, a Trump appointee.

The plaintiffs took the considerable trouble to sue each of Florida’s county elections supervisors, as well as the Secretary of State. That is because past experience in Florida voting rights cases have shown that if only the Secretary of State is sued, the Secretary of State will argue that he is not the proper defendant.

The ballot access appeal from the Libertarian and Green Parties of New York is now docketed in the U.S. Supreme Court. It is case 22-893, and if the state wishes to respond, its response is due April 17. Also if any organization wishes to file an amicus curiae brief in support of the petition, that amicus would be due April 17. If the state does choose to respond that might possibly cause a later deadline for an amicus.

On March 7, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee signed HB 1419, which requires statewide initiatives to include a large number of signatures from each of at least fifty counties. Arkansas has seventy-five counties.

Generally, courts have struck down county distribution requirements for all types of statewide petitions. But on August 31, 2022, the Eighth Circuit upheld Nebraska’s county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. The vote was 2-1. The losing side did not ask for U.S. Supreme Court review, so now it is too late to overturn the Nebraska decision, Eggers v Evnen. Both Nebraska and Arkansas are in the Eighth Circuit. Thanks to Paul Jacob for the news about HB 1419.

Maine Senator Eric Brakey (R-Auburn) has introduced LD 1071, to allow two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. The bill has two co-authors, who are also Republicans.