Arizona law says the number of signatures for independent candidates in 2026 is 3% of the number of registered voters who aren’t members of a qualified party, as of the January 2026 registration tally. The tally is now on the Secretary of State’s website. The number of signatures for a statewide independent will be 44,539. By comparison, in 2024 it was 41,090.
On January 16, the Virginia legislature passed HJR 2, a proposed constitutional amendment that ends the practice of preventing felons from registering to vote, once they have served their sentences. Now it will go to a vote of the people.
Assuming the amendment becomes law, there will be an indirect boost for ballot access, because approximately 300,000 Virginians who could not previously sign petitions will be able to sign petitions. The Virginia petition requirements for minor party and independent candidates require a fixed number of signatures, not a percentage of the last vote. So an increase in the number of registered voters does not cause the number of signatures to rise.
On January 20, the Catoosa County (Georgia) Republican Party filed an amended Complaint in its lawsuit that tries to give the party the right to exclude candidates from its primary ballot. The new Complaint argues that certain Georgia election laws are unconstitutional. The case depends on a 1992 Eleventh Circuit opinion that said the Georgia Republican Party had a right to exclude David Duke, a Ku Klux Klan leader, from its presidential primary.
The amended Complaint includes the Secretary of State as a defendant. The U.S. District Court had ordered that the Secretary of State be brought into the case.
The Complaint refers to the Republican candidates for county office in the 2024 election as “independent candidates” and says they should have tried to appear on the ballot as independents. The party argues that they are not in sympathy with the ideas of the Republican Party, even though some of them are incumbent county commissioners. Georgia law lets independent candidates who are incumbents get on the ballot with no petition.
Alabama Representative Marilyn Lands (D-Huntsville) has introduced HB 14. It sets up a statewide initiative process. The petition requirement would be 7% of the last gubernatorial vote, with a congressional district distribution requirement. Each district would need signatures of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote.
On January 10, New Hampshire held a special legislative primary for the Carroll County seat 7 district. Even though the Republican ballot listed two candidates, they both lost to a write-in candidate.
See the election returns here.
The general election will be March 10. See this story about the primary.
