On November 7, the Alabama Secretary of State appealed Greater Birmingham Ministries v Merrill, 22-13708, to the Eleventh Circuit. This is the lawsuit over access to certain Alabama voter registration records. The U.S. District Court had ruled against the Secretary of State. The plaintiff, a voting rights group, had asked for lists of persons removed from the registration rolls because of a felony conviction, lists of persons whose voter registration application was rejected because of an earlier felony conviction, and lists of people purged from the rolls immediately after the 2020 election.

No Labels, which holds itself out as an entity that is not a political party but which may put an independent centrist presidential candidate on the 2024 ballot, is busy qualifying itself as a party. On November 25 it released a video that mentions its petitioning progress so far: Alabama 80,000; Alaska 6,000; Arizona 46,000; North Carolina 23,000; Ohio 123,000; Oregon 23,000.

Here is the YouTube. When Alabama is mentioned, the screen says 80,000 have been collected, but the narrator says the Alabama figure is 8,000.

Someone running for president in 2024 as an independent, or as the nominee of a new party, will need 652,177 valid signatures, if the laws don’t change. That assumes the candidate uses the easier method in each state.

In 2020, the national total was 568,689, which was substantially lower than the 2024 figure. The increase is due partly to the fact that in 2020, because of covid, Illinois, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York reduced the statutory requirements for 2020 only.

Also, since 2020, Arkansas and Iowa have increased the petition requirement.

For purposes of this compilation, the California easier requirement is deemed to be collecting 219,403 signatures on an independent petition, rather than getting an estimated 75,000 registered party members. Both alternatives are very difficult, and a reasonable person could argue about which is more difficult. It would be very desirable if California would reduce the independent presidential petition. That procedure has not been used since 1992.