In 2015, the Nebraska legislature passed LD 874, an omnibus election law bill that vastly increased the petition requirements for independent congressional candidates, to 10% of the number of registered voters. The old requirement had been 2,000 signatures until 2007, and then 4,000 signatures between 2007 and 2015. The calculation of the number of registered voters is the total on the deadline, so an independent candidate can’t even know exactly how many signatures he or she needs until after the deadline.

The new law is obviously unconstitutional. All petition requirements in excess of 5% that have ever been challenged in court have been invalidated. This includes instances from Arkansas, Illinois, and North Carolina. There is no U.S. Senate election in Nebraska this year, but if there were, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate would need 117,802 valid signatures. Nebraska has three U.S. House seats, and this year an independent for U.S. House in the average district would need 39,267 valid signatures.

Darrell Castle, Constitution Party presidential nominee, is now a qualified write-in presidential candidate in Texas. Initially the state said his write-in declaration was late. However, Castle had sent his filing by a delivery service that provided proof of timely delivery to the Secretary of State. Castle recently submitted this evidence to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, and on September 2 he received a letter from that office, acknowledging that his filing is timely and his write-ins will be counted. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for this news.

If Gary Johnson polls 4% of the vote in every state on November 8, 2016, and if in certain states other statewide Libertarians also poll 4%, the Libertarian Party will be ballot-qualified in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut (for President and U.S. Senate), Delaware, D.C., Florida, Georgia (for statewide office), Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

With a 5% showing, Illinois (for statewide office), Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington would also be on the list, for a total of 43 (counting D.C. as a state). The Maine law on how a party remains on the ballot is in transition, and Maine might also belong on the list.

After November 1996, the Reform Party was ballot-qualified in 32 states. Perot polled over 5% in every state, but unfortunately for the Reform Party, Ross Perot had qualified as an independent, instead of the Reform Party nominee, in Alabama, Delaware, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.

No party, other than the Republican and Democratic Parties, has been ballot-qualified in at least 40 states at any time since the 1910’s decade. After the 2012 election, the Libertarian was on in 31 states. After the 2000 election, the Green Party was on in 22 states.