The U.S. Supreme Court considered whether to hear Minnesota Voters Alliance v Mansky at its October 6 conference, but when the results of that conference were revealed on October 10, the Court had not acted on that case. It will be considered again at a future conference. The issue is a Minnesota law that makes it illegal for a voter at the polls to wear anything relating to politics.

It is already established law that voters can be barred from wearing something at the polls that expresses a point of view about some race on the ballot, but the Minnesota goes further. One of the plaintiffs was wearing something that referred to the Tea Party, but the Tea Party was not on the ballot. The lower courts had upheld the Minnesota law.

According to this story, Greg Orman is taking steps to run for Governor of Kansas as an independent in 2018. In 2014 he was an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, and he polled 42.5% in a race with no Democrat running.

After the 2014 election, he said he probably would have been better off if a Democrat had run, because with no Democrat in the race, his Republican opponent painted him as a Democrat in disguise.

Data scientists Vinad Bakthavachalam and Jake Fuentes have published this study of the electoral college. They estimate that in future U.S. presidential elections in which the popular vote margin between the two leading candidates will be 3% or less, there will be a 30% chance that the electoral college winner will be a different individual than the national popular vote winner. Thanks to Justin Levitt for the link.

Case studies: The 2000 electoral map and the 2016 electoral map.