On January 13, the Wisconsin State Elections Commission removed a judicial candidate from the ballot because her statement of candidacy was notarized improperly. The candidate, Christine Hansen, had been thought to have a chance to win a State Appeals Court election. But her husband notarized her paperwork, which was improper. See this story.
On February 24, Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed SB 12, which prevents any local government from using ranked choice voting for elections for its own officers. No locality in Indiana currently uses RCV.
On February 26, the United Kingdom held a special parliamentary election in the Gorton & Denton district, which is in Manchester. Previously, the Labour Party had won this district in every election starting in 1931. However, the Green Party won. Eleven candidates were on the ballot. The Green, Hannah Soencer, won with 41%. See this wikipedia article about the election. This was only the second special Parliamentary election in the United Kingdom since the general election of 2024.
The only other constituency in the United Kingdom that had ever elected someone who was solely a Green Party nominee had been Brighton. That district elected Caroline Lucas in 2010 and re-elected her in 2015, 2017, and 2019. She did not run for re-election in 2024.
This news story says the Sooner State Party has approximately 35,000 signatures on its petition to become a new party in Oklahoma. But the requirement is 34,599.
The party might win a lawsuit against the petition deadline, which is either March 1, or February 28. The law is ambiguous when March 1 is on a Sunday.
On January 22, the New Mexico House Rules Committee ruled that HB 135 cannot be considered in the 2026 session. Bills in even years can’t be considered unless the Rules Committee approves them, or unless they are budget bills, or bills on a subject for which the Governor has approved, or bills that had been vetoed in the preceding odd year. The bill would have cut the number of signatures for non-presidential independent candidates, and the non-presidential nominees of qualified minor parties, from 2% to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote.
