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.
On February 13, Rhode Island State Senators Brian Thompson, John Burke, and Andrew Dimitri (all of whom are Democrats) have introduced SB 2593. It would ease the definition of a qualified party, to a group that either: (1) polled 2% for any statewide race or a U.S. House seat at the last election; (2) has 5,000 registrants; or (3) has a member of the legislature.
On February 18, the Utah Senate passed SB 194. It changes the method for filling legislative vacancies. Current law says if a legislative seat becomes vacant, the party can choose a replacement. Under current law, a State Senator who had been elected as a Republican in 2024, but who had changed its registration to the Forward Party during 2025 and who had then resigned, made it possible for the Forward Party to choose his replacement last year.
The bill says that current political party of the legislator who vacated that seat is not the party that chooses the replacement. Instead, the party that chooses the replacement is whatever party the outgoing member was last elected under. If this bill had been policy last year, the Forward Party would not have a State Senator in Utah.
On February 20, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed HB 29, which moves the 2026 primary (but not future primaries) from June to August 4. Normally, Virginia requires non-presidential minor party and independent candidate petitions to be filed on primary day. But the bill says that in 2026, the statewide petition deadline will continue to be June 16. The only statewide office up this year is U.S. Senate.
This policy appears to be unconstitutional. The Fourth Circuit has said several times that petition deadlines can’t be earlier than primary date or the day before the primary. In Virginia the Fourth Circuit case was Wood v Meadows, 207 F 3d 708 (2000). In North Carolina, which is also in the Fourth Circuit, a similar decision is Buscemi v Bell, 964 F.3d 252.
The Virginia legislature moved the 2026 primary to August so as to give more time for a vote on a redistricting measure. However, the August primary date for 2026 is settled, regardless of whether that proposed ballot measures goes before the voters or not.
The bill moves the independent petition deadline for U.S. House to August 4.
