On March 30, the Illinois State Senate passed SB733, which lowers petition requirements for independent candidates, and for the nominees of unqualified parties. Existing law requires statewide candidates to get 25,000, but the bill drops this to 5,000. Existing law requires district and county candidates to submit petitions of 5% of the last vote cast, but the bill drops this to approximately one-half of 1% (the formula is complicated and not easy to describe precisely). The bill passed unanimously. Now it goes to the State House. Thanks to Dan Johnson-Weinberger for this news.

If the bill becomes law, then every state except Alabama and Georgia will have some procedure for a new party to get its US House nominees on the November ballot for US House, that is equal to, or easier than, a petition of 2% of the last vote cast (although in some cases, as in Oklahoma, they couldn’t have the party label printed on the ballot).