Texas holds a special election on November 4 to fill the vacancy in the 18th U.S. House district. Sixteen candidates are on the ballot. Candidates need either a filing fee of $3,125, or 500 signatures to get on the ballot in Texas. Here is the candidate list.

There are no party nominees. Seven Democrats, five Republicans, two independents, one Green, and one American Solidarity candidate are on the ballot (she is Reyna Anderson, and her ballot label is “independent.”) If no one gets 50% there will be a run-off.

On the same day, Texas is holding a special election to fill the vacancy in the Ninth State Senate district. That race has two Republicans and a Democrat.

On October 29, the Wisconsin legislature sent AB 149 to Governor Tony Evers. The bill had passed in early October. It improves ballot access for qualified parties, by removing the requirement that qualified parties must choose their presidential elector candidates at a meeting attended by their legislative nominees. Frequently qualified parties don’t have any nominees for the legislature. For example, in 2024, the Green, Libertarian and Constitution Parties had no nominees for legislature.

The Democratic Party tried to keep the Green Party off the presidential ballot in 2024 using this law, but fortunately the State Supreme Court blocked that move. Nevertheless, it is good that the law has been eased by the legislature this year. The bill says the party chair can nominate presidential elector candidates.

On October 30, the plaintiffs in Kim v Hanlon, 3:24cv-1098, filed this Reply Brief. They argue fiercely that they do have standing and that the U.S. District Court should finally rule that the old ballot format for primaries should be declared unconstitutional.