In 2016, the Utah legislature amended the election law to require that independent candidates must have this message underneath their names on the ballot: “This candidate is not affiliated with, or does not qualify to be listed on the ballot as affiliated with a political party.”

There is only one independent candidate for any federal or state office on the Utah ballot this year. She is Marsha Holland, running for State House, district 73. She is the only opponent of the incumbent Republican. She has raised more money than her opponent. On November 2, she filed a federal lawsuit against the law requiring that ballot label for independent candidates. She does not ask for injunctive relief, but she says she intends to run in 2020 as well, and she asks that the label be declared unconstitutional. Here is her six-page Complaint. Holland v Cox, 4:18cv-74. The case is assigned to Judge David Nuffer, an Obama appointee.

Her complaint says that she has learned from multiple sources that when voters see that label, they believe it means it is saying she is not qualified to be elected. Here is a news story about her lawsuit, showing a picture of the ballot.

On November 2, the Eleventh Circuit refused to disturb the earlier ruling of a U.S. District Court, concerning signatures on absentee ballot applications, and returned absentee ballots. Georgia Muslin Voter Project v Kemp, 18-14502. The case involved situations in which election officials receive either a request for an absentee ballot, or a completed mail ballot, and they feel the signature on the envelope doesn’t match the signature on the voter registration form. The U.S. District Court had ruled that when the election official feels the signatures don’t match, the official must promptly notify the voter and give the voter a chance to prove the signatures are from the same person.

The three judges are Gerald Tjoflat, a Ford appointee; Jill Pryor, an Obama appointee; and Keith C. Newsom, a Trump appointee. The vote was 2-1. The court order does not say how each judge voted. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

This case should not be confused with the Georgia case over voters whose voter registration applications have a tiny mismatch with information about that applicant in other state databases, such as the Drivers License registry.

On November 2, a U.S. District Court in Georgia issued an injunction in Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda v Kemp, 1:18cv-4727. The injunction says that voters whose voter registration records weren’t processed timely, and who bring proof of citizenship and residence to the polls, may cast a regular ballot, not just a provisional ballot. Here is the 36-page order.