CNN is reporting that California State Senator Kevin de Leon will run for U.S. Senate next year. He is leader of the State Senate, and a Democrat. See this story. Because incumbent U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein is running for re-election next year, and because no well-known Republican has announced for this seat, if the CNN story is true, it is likely that California’s top-two system will again produce a general election ballot for U.S. Senate with only two Democrats. Write-ins are not allowed, so just as in 2016, voters who don’t wish to vote for a Democrat in 2018 will not be able to vote for that office at all. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.

On October 11, the High Court of Kenya ruled that in the re-run of the presidential election set for October 26, all candidates who were on the original presidential ballot must be included on that ballot. The electoral commission had been planning to only let the top two candidates into the new election. See this story. The case was brought and won by Ekuru Aukot, who had come in fifth in the original election, out of eight candidates. The High Court had earlier ruled that the first election was invalid due to unfair and illegal violations of the election law, and had said the election must be run again. The first election had been held on August 8.

The North Carolina legislature will vote on Tuesday, October 17, on whether to override the gubernatorial veto of SB 656, the ballot access bill. The legislature can override a veto with 60% in each house of the legislature.