The Illinois legislature has passed SB 662, and the bill is on its way to the Governor. Illinois is only the third state this year in which any ballot access improvement bills have passed the state legislature. The others are Arkansas and Colorado. SB 662 is not the same bill that had been carrying the improvements; it is an omnibus bill. The bill makes the independent candidate deadline for all office equal to the deadline for new and unqualified party petitions, namely June of election years. It also lowers the 10% petition requirement for independent candidates for legislature to 5%. Assuming the Governor signs the bill, there will no longer be any independent candidate petition requirements anywhere in the nation at a level worse than 5% of the number of registered voters, except for certain small districts in New Hampshire. Thanks to Chris Bennett for this news.