State Senator Ben Westlund is an independent candidate for Governor of Oregon. He needs 18,356 valid signatures, and has collected 45,000. Deschutes County has finished checking his petition, and reported 57% of his signatures are valid. If that rate holds up in other counties, he will easily qualify; he only needs a 41% validity rate.

He will be the first statewide independent candidate to cope with Oregon’s new primary screenout, which forbids voters from signing for an independent if they voted in the primary. Oregon has high primary turnouts, compared to most states, since the state votes entirely by mail.