Virginia holds special elections to fill three legislative vacancies this month. Independent candidates are running in two of the three races.

On January 6, there are special elections for Delegate in the 34th and 63rd districts. In the 63rd district, independent candidate William Henry “Mouse” Jones is the only opponent of the Democratic nominee, Joseph Preston. The district is centered on Petersburg.

In the 34th Delegate district, the only nominees are Republican Craig Parisot and Democrat Kathleen Murphy. The district is in parts of Fairfax and Loudon Counties.

On January 13, the three candidates for the 74th Delegate district race are: independent Joseph D. Morrissey, Democrat Kevin J. Sullivan, and Republican Matt Walton. This district is near Richmond.

Chicago holds its nonpartisan city elections on February 24, 2015. Voters elect three citywide offices: Mayor, City Clerk, and Treasurer. For the latter two offices, only one candidate will be listed on the ballot. Candidates for the citywide offices need 12,500 valid signatures, and that is so severe, there is very little competition for the two lesser offices. Two candidates for city clerk filed petitions, but one candidate’s petition was challenged and the challenger prevailed.

Here is the long list of candidates for Alderman who were challenged, and what the results of each challenge were. The document contains 16 pages. There are races for Alderman in 50 districts. Not all of the challenges have been adjudicated yet. At this point it is not known how many candidates will be on for Mayor.

According to this news story, it seems likely the Illinois legislature is likely to pass a bill providing for a special election for State Comptroller in 2016. Normally that office is up in midterm years and has a four-year term. Judy Baar Topinka was re-elected State Comptroller in November 2014 but then she died before the new term started.