On February 28, Great Britain held a special election to fill the vacant House of Commons seat in Eastleigh. The Liberal Democrat Party won the election with 13,342 votes; the U.K. Independence Party placed second with 11,571; the Conservative Party placed third with 10,559; Labour placed fourth with 4,088. There were also ten others on the ballot. See this story for the full results.

This is the first time the U.K. Independence Party had placed as high as second in any Parliamentary election since before 2005.

Eastleigh is in Hampshire, on the south central coast of England. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

On February 28, the Illinois voter who had challenged three minor party or independent candidates’ petitions (in the special election to fill the U.S. House vacancy in the 2nd district), withdrew her challenges. Therefore the April ballot will include the nominees of the Democratic, Republican, and Green Parties, along with three independent candidates. The Green nominee is LeAlan Jones. The three independents are Marcus Lewis (who never was challenged and who has been on the ballot all along), Elizabeth Pahlke, and Curtiss Bey.

Now that the major party primaries for this election are over with, the Illinois media is reporting that the Republican nominee, Paul McKinley, was convicted of burglary long ago and served time in prison. See this story. The Democratic nominee is Robin Kelly.

News reports indicate that five individuals probably submitted enough signatures to be on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots on April 30, for the special Massachusetts U.S. Senate election. The primaries are on April 30 and the election will be on June 25. The deadline for primary petitions was February 27.

Three Republicans submitted signatures: Dan Winslow submitted approximately 25,000; Gabriel Gomez submitted the same number; Michael Sullivan submitted approximately 20,000. The requirement is 10,000. Two Democrats, both members of the U.S. House, also submitted substantial petitions; they are Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch.

Independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, also need 10,000 signatures, but they aren’t due until early April.