(AP) -- Three dozen legislative candidates kicked off primary ballots earlier this year will be on the November ballots as petition candidates.
The state Election Commission has certified 36 petition candidates for House and Senate seats. By state law, the verification process ended Wednesday.
The agency ruled the petitions of eight would-be candidates were invalid.
The unprecedented number of petition candidates stems from a state Supreme Court decision in May on improperly filed paperwork. The initial decision, plus a follow-up ruling weeks later, booted nearly 250 candidates statewide from June 12 primary ballots.
For the decertified candidates, getting on the ballot with "petition" beside their names represented their only option.
The process required collecting signatures from at least 5 percent of a district's registered voters.
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