The Monkey Cage is a regular feature in the Washington Post that presents political science research. This column, “Independents Didn’t Decide the Midterm Election” by Samara Klav and Yanna Krupnikov presents research suggesting that most self-described independent voters are just as partisan as party members. It says the real reason Democrats did badly in this week’s election is that such a large proportion of Democrats didn’t turn out to vote.

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.