On August 17, Jenna Amacher, an Alderman in Tullahoma, Tennessee, filed a federal lawsuit to force the city to print “Republican” next to her name in the next election for Alderman. Amacher v State of Tennessee, m.d., 3:21cv-638. Tennessee law says that unless a city specifies in its charter that it has partisan elections, all city elections will be non-partisan. Here is the Complaint. She is a Republican. On page two, the Complaint says that she “seeks the right to affiliate with her political organization on the voter ballot.”

The Complaint implies that state law prevents the Republican Party from endorsing her, but there is nothing in any state law mentioned in the Complaint that stops a political party from endorsing a candidate in a non-partisan election. The Complaint does not mention the U.S. Supreme Court decision Timmons v Twin Cities Area New Party, which upheld Minnesota’s ban on fusion and which said there is no constitutional right for candidates to have a party label on ballots. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for the news of this case.

On August 30, some voters who want to vote for him Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown as an independent candidate filed a federal lawsuit against the New York petition deadline for independent candidates. In 2019 the legislature moved it from August to May, which was a sharp break with tradition. The deadline had always been in August, September, or October of election years until the 2019 change.

The case is Meadors v Erie County Board of Elections, w.d., 1:21cv-982. It is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge John L. Sinatra, a Trump appointee, who has set the hearing for an injunction on Friday, September 3, at 10:30 a.m. in Buffalo. Here is the complaint.