Virginia has traditionally been a stronghold for independent candidates for Congress. Virginia elected an independent, Harry F. Byrd, Jr., to the U.S. Senate in 1970 and 1976. Virginia elected independent candidate Virgil Goode to the U.S. House in 2000. And for many decades, Virginia has always had independent candidates for Congress on the ballot.

But in 2018, there are no independent candidates on the Virginia ballot for either House of Congress. There are three Libertarians on, in districts Four, Seven, and Eleven, as well as for U.S. Senate. No other third party has any candidates on.

Virginia ballot access for independent candidates was extremely easy between the beginning of government-printed ballots in 1894, through 1969. No independent for any office other than president ever needed more than 250 signatures. In 1970 that was raised to one-half of 1% of the number of registered voters, but in 1998 it was lowered to 10,000 signatures for U.S. Senate, and 1,000 for U.S. House.

An independent in 2018, Shaun Brown, was going to be on the ballot in the Second district, but on September 5 she was removed because a court determined that many of her signatures were forged. The State Board of Elections had approved her petition, but then the Democratic Party sued the Board and persuaded the judge that many signatures were forgeries. Also the petition was invalid because the candidate had listed her address differently on different pages. The case was Democratic Party of Virginia v Piper, in Richmond circuit court, CL18004061. Here is the Complaint. Thanks to Daniel Sachs for that link.