On October 16, a North Dakota voter sued the Secretary of State to overturn a North Dakota law that makes it a crime “to ask, solicit, or in any manner try to induce or persuade any voter on an election to vote or refrain from voting for any candidate or the candidates or ticket of any political party or any measure submitted to the people.” The law is found in the election law at 16.1-10-06. The law exempts bumper stickers and billboards.

There is no doubt that this lawsuit will prevail. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1966 struck down an Alabama law that made it illegal for a newspaper to run an editorial supporting or opposing any candidate on election day. The lawsuit is Emineth v Jaeger, 1:12-cv-139. It is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for this news. Here is the complaint.

On October 10, the three ballot-listed candidates for U.S. Senate from Arizona debated each other. See this story. The three candidates are Democratic nominee Richard Carmona, Republican nominee Jeff Flake, and Libertarian nominee Marc Victor.

On July 17, U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Story dismissed the lawsuit Green Party of Georgia v Kemp, before the state had even filed its Answer to the Complaint. The Green and Constitution Parties immediately filed for reconsideration, but three months later, that request for reconsideration is still pending. It is unusual for requests for reconsideration to be pending more than a month or so. The case challenges the Georgia procedures for minor party and independent presidential candidates to get on the ballot.

Judge Story had dismissed the case without seeming to even notice that the precedents he relied on do not pertain to presidential candidates. Both the U.S. Supreme Court (in Anderson v Celebrezze) and the 11th circuit (in Bergland v Harris) had previously ruled that ballot access for presidential candidates involves a different set of standards.