THREE STATES EASE BALLOT ACCESS FOR U.S. HOUSE FOR 2026 ONLY
During May, three states eased ballot access for minor party and independent candidates for U.S. House for 2026 only. The improvements were most striking in Louisiana. These temporary changes were made because the states had decided to redraw their U.S. House district boundaries, and therefore it would have been obviously unfair to force petitioning candidates to follow the normal rules when the districts had changed so late in the season.
The late legislative decisions to draw new districts were motivated by the U.S. Supreme Court decision Louisiana v Callais, 24-109, which was handed down on April 29. It said states no longer need to follow old U.S. Supreme Court precedents (interpreting the Voting Rights Act) that required Black-majority congressional districts if it was feasible to create them and if the state had a history of racially polarized voting.
Florida: on May 4, Governor Rick DeSantis signed HB 1D, which redrew the districts. Florida law already said that in years of redistricting, the petition in lieu of filing fee becomes much easier. Usually the requirement is approximately 4,800 signatures, and all the signatures must come from inside the district. But in years following redistricting, the signatures can be collected anywhere in the state. This year the requirement in each district is 2,564 signatures. The bill did not change the deadline, which was May 11. However, the expectation that Florida would draw new districts had been widely shared for months, even before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, so an alert candidate could have been using the easier procedure for the last several months.