On December 4, Pennsylvania state representative Mark Rozzi changed his registration from Democratic to independent, which he had promised to do when he had been elected Speaker of the House earlier that day. See this story.

Rozzi was first elected as a Democrat in 2012 and had been re-elected as a Democrat ever since. In November 2022 he polled 63% of the vote against his Republican opponent. He lives in Berks County.

The election of an independent speaker came about because the chamber was almost perfectly divided, and because of several vacancies, it was difficult to say which party had a majority. Rozzi received support from all the Democrats and a substantial number of Republicans, as a compromise to help organize the chamber.

On January 4, Buffalo, New York Mayor Byron Brown filed this brief in Meadors v Erie County Board of Elections, w.d., 1:21cv-982. This is the lawsuit against the May petition deadline for New York independent candidates, a deadline created in 2019. Before 2019 the deadline had always been in August, September or October of election years.

The Mayor filed an independent petition in 2021, the year he was running for re-election. Although his petition had enough valid signatures, it was rejected because it had been filed after the deadline. The Mayor won injunctive relief against the deadline in U.S. District Court in 2019, but then the Second Circuit reversed, without comment. So he did not get on the November 2021 ballot and had to spend over $1,000,000 on a write-in campaign. He did get re-elected on write-ins.

In mid-December 2022, the Alabama Secretary of State gave a free list of the registered voters to the Libertarian Party, because it had qualified for statewide ballot access in the 2022 election. Alabama charges more for the list of registered voters than any other state ($37,000) but gives a free list to qualified parties.

Although the Libertarian Party did not poll 20% for any statewide race last year, it did poll over 20% for countywide partisan offices in Madison, Macon, and Jackson Counties, so it is on the ballot for 2024 for all county partisan offices in those three counties.

The party is seeking sponsors for a bill to lower the 20% vote test to something lower.