Twelve independent candidates were elected to state legislatures on November 8, 2016. Seven were in Vermont, two were in Alaska, two were in Maine, and one was in Rhode Island.

By contrast, in November 2014, fourteen independents had been elected to state legislatures. One of the 2014 winners is still in office because she was elected to four-year terms.

The November 2016 national vote for independent candidates for State Senate was 414,403. By contrast, the 2014 State Senate national total was 251,674.

For lower house of state legislatures, the November 2016 national total was 727,539. In 2014 it had been 410,118.

Virginia State Senator Nicholas Cote (D-Alexandria) has introduced SB 1236, which cuts the statewide petition requirement from 10,000 to 5,000, for independent candidates and for the nominees of unqualified parties. President is already 5,000, but all the other statewide offices are currently 10,000.

The bill also cuts the requirement for statewide candidates seeking to get on a primary ballot.

The bill has a hearing in the Senate Privileges & Elections Committee on Tuesday, January 17. Thanks to Nicholas Cote for this news.

New York has five ballot-qualified parties which typically do not run their own nominees, but who cross-nominate a Democrat or a Republican. They are the Conservative Party (ballot-qualified since 1962); the Independence Party (ballot-qualified since 1994); the Working Families Party (since 1998); the Reform Party (since 2014); and the Women’s Equality Party (since 2014).

All five of them had at least one nominee in 2016 for Congress or legislature who was not the nominee of any other party. It is not quite fair to characterize these parties as “always” cross-nominating a Democrat or a Republican.

The Working Families and Women’s Equality Party virtually always cross-nominate a Democrat; the Reform Party virtually always cross-nominates a Republican and the Conservative Party generally cross-nominates a Republican.

The Independence Party splits its cross-nominations between the two major parties, although in 2016 it leaned Republican. Of its 144 nominees for Congress and state legislature in 2016, 92 were Republicans, 51 were Democrats, and one was solely the nominee of the Independence Party. The Independence Party has never cross-nominated a Democrat for president, but once it cross-nominated a Republican (John McCain in 2008).

In 2016, the Conservative Party’s nominees for Congress and state legislature were 128 Republicans, 6 Democrats, and 30 who were not nominees of either the Democratic or Republican Party. In 2016, the Working Families nominees for Congress and state legislature were 140 Democrats and one who was not the nominee of any other party. Also in 2016, the Women’s Equality nominees for Congress and state legislature were 76 Democrats, two Republians, and three who were not the nominee of any other party. Finally, in 2016 the Reform nominees for Congress and state legislature were 120 Republicans, three Democrats, three Conservatives, and three who were not the nominees of any other party.