On October 27, the New York State Court of Appeals, the highest state court in New York, agreed with the mid-level court that Gigi Bowman should be on the November 4 ballot. She is the Libertarian nominee for State Senate, 5th district. The Libertarian Party is not a qualified party in New York, so it had to collect 3,000 valid signatures to get her on the ballot.

Her Republican opponent had challenged her petition. Even after the challenger lost in the mid-level court, he appealed to the State Court of Appeals, notwithstanding that the election was only eleven days away. The case is Wilson v Bowman, 2014-1108.

On October 31, both sides filed final briefs in the U.S. District Court in Green Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele, eastern, 2:14cv-3299. This is the case filed this year against several Pennsylvania ballot access laws: (1) the ban on out-of-state circulators; (2) the requirement that each petition sheet be notarized; (3) the requirement that signers from different counties can’t sign the same sheet; (4) the requirement that voters can’t sign more than one petition for the same office; (5) the administrative decision to invalidate signatures from persons eligible to register to vote who haven’t actually registered, given the wording of the law that says they can sign. Several other points in the original complaint have already been resolved favorably, such as the requirement that signatures are invalid if the signer doesn’t add the year in the “date” column.

Here is the brief of the minor parties.

This case should not be confused with the other Pennsylvania ballot access case, Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele, on the issue of putting petitioning groups at risk of over $100,000 in court costs if petitions are held invalid. That is also pending in the U.S. District Court, before another judge.

On October 27, the chair of the St. Louis city election commission wrote a letter to independent candidate Jennifer Florida, saying that her campaign literature must not refer to herself as an “independent Democrat.” The letter says such literature “shall be seized by the St. Louis City Election Board.”

Florida is the incumbent Recorder of Deeds. She was appointed to that post earlier this year, too late to run in any party primary, so she petitioned as an independent candidate. She is a life-long Democrat and wants the voters to know that. In response to the threatening letter, on October 31 she filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the Election Commission is violating the First Amendment. Florida v Bd. of Election Cmsrs. for the City of St. Louis, 4:14cv-1840.