Florida held primaries for U.S. House, 20th district, on November 2. This is for a special election to fill a seat that has been vacant since April 6, 2021. On November 24, the Democrat who placed second in that primary filed a lawsuit, alleging that the winner is not eligible.

The lawsuit is in Broward County Circuit Court, and alleges that the winner, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, is not eligible because (1) she didn’t file a campaign finance report; (2) she campaigned on a promise to work for an additional $1,000 federal stimulus check for all taxpayers, and the lawsuit says this is equivalent to trying to bribe the voters. The lawsuit, filed by candidate Dale Holness (who placed second) also says that election officials improperly refused to count 12 overseas absentee ballots. No one know whether the result would change if those 12 ballots were counted. The margin between the two candidates is only five votes.

The special election is set for January 11, 2022.

On November 30, some Ohio voting rights groups and voters filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court to overturn the new U.S. House district boundaries. League of Women Voters v DeWine. Here is the Complaint.

In 2018 the voters of Ohio amended the state constitution to say the legislature “shall not pass a plan that unduly favors or disfavors a political party or its incumbents.” But the new districts make it likely that Republicans will win 3/4ths of the seats.

The Institute for Political Innovation has launched an initiative for a top-four system in Missouri. See this story. Like the other initiatives, this one makes it far more difficult for a party to attain or keep qualified status. By eliminating party nominees for all office except president, the initiative changes the definition of “party” from a group that got 2% for any statewide race, to one that got 2% for president. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.

Similar initiatives, abolishing party nominees, injured the ability of parties to be ballot-qualified in Washington and Alaska, and the Institute’s Nevada initiative has the same flaw. The only reason the top-two initiative in California did not have a similar flaw is that the California legislature passed a bill, letting the primary vote count toward qualified status, and also easing the number of registered voters for qualified status.