On April 16, the Alabama House Constitution & Elections Committee will hear HB 738, the bill that cuts the number of signatures for an independent candidate (for office other than president) from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5%.

Alabama is the only state which requires statewide independent candidates to submit a petition greater than 2% of the last vote (except that Oklahoma requires presidential independents to submit a 3% petition, but Oklahoma doesn’t require any petition for independents for office other than president).