Earnest Ray Calhoon, a Democrat running for California Assembly, 79th district, has been disqualified from the June primary ballot because of a supposed flaw with his petition. Candidates for legislature in California need 40 signatures to get on a primary ballot. Some of the signers for Calhoon let the circulator fill in the address blank, instead of doing it themselves. Calhoon has filed a state court lawsuit to get back on the ballot. Calhoon v Weber, 26WM000063, Sacramento Superior Court.

On March 17, the Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee passed HB 1716. The bill had already passed the House. It says that a party that has been ballot-qualified at least eight years may remain on the ballot indefinitely as long as it runs at least one candidate every other election, and keeps its list of officers current with the state elections office.

Other states with a similar policy are Idaho and South Carolina.

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.