More independent candidates for the legislature have been getting elected during the last decade, compared to previous years. In every even-numbered general election, more than ten independent candidates have been elected in 2022, 2020, 2018, 2016, and 2014. But there are no years in which more than ten independents got elected to state legislatures at any time 1975-2010.

The highest number of independent winners since World War II was in 2012, when 17 were elected.

The number of winners in other recent years has been: 2022, thirteen (at least); 2020, fifteen; 2018, thirteen; 2016, twelve; and 2014, fifteen.

The main cause is probably the growing movement to eliminate straight-ticket devices. Fifteen states have repealed them 1965-2020. Only six still have the device: Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Another cause is the switch from party-column ballot format to office-block format. Only five states still don’t use office-block: Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York.

The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C., will hear Stein v Federal Election Commission, 21-1213, on Wednesday, January 18. The issue is whether Jill Stein, the 2016 Green Party nominee, must repay $175,000 in primary season matching funds. The FEC shifted the rules in 2016. Previously, the primary period ended when the presidential candidate had finished campaigning for the last party nomination in the calendar, which for Stein was her campaign for the Peace & Freedom nomination, which nominated on August 13, 2016. But the FEC changed that rule, and said the primary season ended when she won the Green Party nomination on August 5. Therefore, the money Stein received between August 5 and August 13 could not be matched, and the matching money she received for that period must be repaid, according to the FEC as it applies its newer rule.

At the November 8, 2022 election, six independents were elected to the Alaska State House. Ironically, however, none of them were helped by Ranked Choice Voting. In all six races, either the independent had no opponent, or had just one opponent. So RCV didn’t have any effect on the race.

The six are Daniel Ortiz, Rebecca Himschoot, Calvin Schrage, Alyse Galvin, Bryce Edgmon, and Josiah Patkotak. The latter two were unopposed. The first four each had a Republican opponent.