The Illinois Green Party will attempt to place its statewide slate on the 2026 ballot. See here for the list of the statewide slate. The party did not get on the statewide ballot in 2024. It is likely that the Green Party will be the only third party that petitions for statewide office in Illinois this year, except for the Independence Party. The law requires 25,000 signatures. The state does not permit petitioning to begin until February 22, and the signatures are due in late May. The deadline is probably unconstitutionally early.

On February 11, the Wisconsin legislature passed AB 223, which bans out-of-state circulators for candidate petitions and recall petitions. Wisconsin doesn’t have the initiative or referendum. In the Senate the vote was party-line, with all Democrats voting “no” and all Republicans voting “yes.” Wisconsin has a Democratic Governor, so it’s possible this bill will be vetoed.

Oddly the bill does not cover petitions to create a new party. That type of petition, which requires 10,000 signatures, is very seldom used. Generally minor parties become ballot-qualified by circulating a candidate petition for a statewide office and having that candidate poll at least 1% of the vote.

Wisconsin is in the Seventh Circuit. In 2000 the Seventh Circuit ruled that it is unconstitutional for a state to ban out-of-state circulators. Krislov v Rednour, 226 F.3d 851. That was an Illinois case. Illinois appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that court refused to hear it.

West Virginia Senator Robbie Morris (R-Randolph) and Representative Joe Funkhouser (R-Charles Town) have introduced SB 851 and HB 5217. The identical bills would require declared write-in candidates to pay filing fees.

West Virginia in the past also required write-in candidates to pay filing fees, but in 2000 a U.S. District Court struck down the West Virginia filing fees for write-in candidates. Phillips v Hechler, 120 F.Supp.2d 587. The state did not appeal and repealed the law. The rationale for the court decision is that the purpose of filing fees is to keep ballots from being too crowded, but write-in candidates’ names are not printed on ballots.