There are two bills in North Carolina to reduce the number of signatures needed for an independent candidate for statewide office. H 1115 passed the House on May 17. It lowers the number of signatures for a statewide independent from 2% of the number of registered voters (approx. 100,000) to 2% of the last gubernatorial vote (69,734).

A better bill, H88, which lowers the statewide independent requirement to about 17,500, and also lowers the new party petition to the same number, has not made any headway lately but could still pass.