On November 17, the Eleventh Circuit denied a request from the Georgia Secretary of State for a stay of the U.S. District Court order in the ballot access case concerning U.S. House petitions for minor party and independent candidates. Cowen v Raffensperger, 21-13199.

This means that while the state’s appeal is pending in the Eleventh Circuit, the petition requirement for 2022 for U.S. House will be 1% of the number of registered voters, approximately 5,500 signatures. That is the interim relief that the U.S. District Court had put in place. The state wanted the old 5% to be in place while the case is pending in the Eleventh Circuit.

The Eleventh Circuit also expedited the case. Briefs are due in December 2021.

Virginia voters elected a new House of Delegates on November 2, 2021. The new partisan lineup is 52 Republicans, 48 Democrats. The old chamber had a Democratic majority.

This story reveals that Republicans won the two closest races. There will be recounts in those two districts.

On November 15, two Alaska politicians filed an amicus curiae brief in Kohlhaas v State, S-18210. The amicus is opposed to the top-four system and in support of the challenge to that system. The individuals who filed the amicus are Mead Treadwell (who was Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor 2010-2014), and Dick Randolph. Randolph was a Libertarian state legislator 1978-1982, and the Libertarian Party nominee for Governor in 1982.

Here is the amicus.