The State Bar of Texas board on Friday approved the nominations of Lisa Blue and Randy Sorrels for president-elect — two lawyers who started their campaigns as petition candidates. But the board then changed the rule for collecting signatures.

Under the new rule, petition signatures will not be valid if collected more than 180 days prior to the March 1 deadline for candidates to submit petitions to the bar. That means signatures could not be collected by a petition candidate prior to Sept. 2. Under existing rules, a lawyer must collect approximately 5,000 signatures to run as a petition candidate.

State Bar President Tom Vick said that rule “goes hand and hand” with another rule change approved Friday that would move the bar board's selection of president-elect candidates from January to the preceding September.