Cam Ward, a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, plans to introduce a bill in the 2010 legislature to lower the number of signatures for minor parties and for independent candidates. Ward is a Republican from Alabaster, a suburb south of Birmingham. The bill will lower the petition from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5% of that same base.

Ward introduced the same bill in 2009, except that due to a drafting error, it only lowered the independent candidate requirement, not the minor party petition requirement. The 2010 bill will include both types of petition. The 2009 bill passed the House Constitution and Elections Committee unanimously, but then it never made any further headway. The 2010 session of the legislature convenes next week and adjourns in April.

Ward is not running for re-election to the House in 2010. Instead he is running for the State Senate.