Two Florida Democratic legislators have introduced bills to require the Governor to schedule special elections without undue delay. They are SB 460 by Senator Tina Polsky, and HB 597 by Representative Michael Gottlieb.
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Dan Walters, the dean of California politics commentators, has again written a Cal Matters column on how the top-two system could result in a gubernatorial election ballot with only two Republicans on the general election ballot. However, he does not mention the idea that the legislature next year could react by legalizing write-ins in the general election.
The Carolina Journal has this story about the December 27, 2025 voter registration tally in North Carolina. North Carolina is the only state in which election officials announce new registration totals every week. Republicans have almost caught up with Democrats for the first time, but the bigger gains are the number of registered independents.
On December 15, the Arkansas Libertarian Party was told that its petition for ballot status in 2026 is valid.
South Carolina held special legislative elections on December 23. See the results here.
In the State Senate 12th district, the only name on the ballot was the Republican nominee, but 32.63% of the votes were cast for a write-in. The state did not provide a breakdown of who received the write-in votes. South Carolina does not have a write-in declaration of candidacy procedure. In November 24 there had been both a Republican and a Democrat on the ballot, and the Democrat had received 35.84% of the vote.
In the House 21st district, the only name on the ballot was the Republican nominee, but 29.66% of the votes went to write-in candidates. In November 2024 there had also only been a Republican on the ballot, but 2024 write-ins only amounted to 1.72% of the vote.
In the House 88th district, in the special election there were Republican and Democratic nominees. The Republican received 62.32% of the vote. In November 2024 there had only been a Republican on the ballot.
These three special elections were held two days before Christmas. Only 11% of the registered voters participated in these three elections.