Arkansas Governor Signs Bill Moving Primary and Petition Deadlines

ImageFrom Ballot Access News:

On May 29, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed SB 8, the bill that moves the primary for all office in 2016 from late May to early March, and which moves the petition deadline for new parties to September 2015 and the non-presidential independent deadline to November 2015.

The bill also forces new parties to have chosen all their 2016 nominees no later than November 2015. It is possible the Libertarian Party will sue over the deadline for it to have chosen all its nominees.

There has never before been any state that forced new parties to nominate all their nominees for a November even-numbered election an entire year before the election. New parties in Arkansas nominate by convention.