Here is the brief filed by Arizona state government on November 3, explaining why the state feels the February petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties is constitutional.
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On election day, November 4, Jennifer Florida won a temporary restraining order against St. Louis election officials, who had threatened to seize her campaign literature if it described Florida has an “independent Democrat.” Florida was on the ballot as an independent candidate for Recorder of Deeds for the city. The lawsuit was in U.S. District Court, and is Florida v Board of Election Commissioners for the City of St. Louis, Missouri, e.d., 4:14cv-1840.
Florida’s only opponent was the Democratic nominee. Florida was the incumbent. She had been appointed earlier in the year, after it was too late to run in the Democratic primary. Missouri holds primaries in August but requires primary candidate to file by March. Florida was defeated, even though she had been endorsed by the Mayor and Congressman William Clay. See this story. Probably the straight-ticket device worked against her.
The restraining order issued by the court on election day says, “It is hereby ordered that defendant, its officeers, employees, or agents, and those acting on its behalf or in concert with it are prohibited from seizing plaintiff’s campaign materials and shall immediately return any campaign materials seized from Plaintiff.” The Board of Election Commissioners had felt it is improper for an independent candidate to use the name of a qualified political party to describe herself.
The November 4 election appears to have had one of the lowest turnouts in U.S. history. Here is a preliminary analysis covering each state, based on data collected by Professor Michael P. McDonald. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Reason has this interesting article about what the exit polls tell us about voters who voted for Libertarian Party nominees in the North Carolina and Virginia Senate races.
On October 24, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court removed State Senator Alicia “Chucky” Hansen from the ballot, because it thought she doesn’t meet the qualifications to be a Senator, even though she had just served two terms in the Senate. Instead of appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, or any federal court, Hansen ran as a write-in candidate. According to this story, those votes haven’t been tallied yet.
The story also reveals that the two independent candidates for Governor of the territory polled over 14%.