The October 16, 2013 special election for U.S. Senate in New Jersey will probably only include four candidates. They will be the two winners of the major party primaries being held on August 13, along with two independent candidates. One is Antonio Sabas, whose ballot label is Freedom of Choice. The other will be Edward C. Stackhouse, whose ballot label is “Ed the Barber.” UPDATE: after this post was written, four more candidates filed (on the afternoon of the deadline day), so this post is no longer accurate. There may be as many as eight candidates.

This is the first U.S. Senate election in New Jersey history with no minor party nominees on the ballot. Generally statewide elections in New Jersey have five or six candidates on the ballot, because the petition requirement is only 800 valid signatures.

On August 12, a lawsuit was filed against three provisions of the North Carolina omnibus election law bill that had been signed a few hours before the lawsuit was filed. The case is League of Women Voters of North Carolina v State of North Carolina, middle district, U.S. District Court. It challenges: (1) the reduction in days in which early voting is in effect (the bill reduces the early voting period from 17 days to 10 days); (2) the elimination of the ability of individuals to register to vote at the polling station during the early voting period; (3) the new law that says provisional ballots are void if they are turned in to a polling place that is different from the polling place that serves that voter’s neighborhood.

The basis for the lawsuit is that those three provisions violate the Voting Rights Act, and also the 14th amendment to the Constitution. The complaint alleges that statistical data shows that all three provisions will have more impact on African-American voters than other voters.

Here is the complaint. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Bridgeport, Connecticut elects School Board members in partisan elections. The Working Families Party already has three seats on the nine-member Board, although two of its members are up for re-election this year. The party hopes to increase its strength on the board. On August 10, the party nominated three candidates for the election that will be held November 5, 2013. One of the party’s incumbents, John Bagley, is not up for re-election this year, so if the party elects all three of its candidates, it will have four seats on the Board.

The party’s three candidates this year are Sauda Baraka (who is running for re-election), Eric Stewart-Alicea, and Andre Baker. Incumbent WFP member Maria Pereira is not running for re-election.

Baker is also seeking the Democratic nomination in the September 10 primary, but the recent Democratic Party nominating convention rejected Baker and endorsed three other Democrats. If Baker still manages to win the Democratic primary, his name will appear on the November ballot twice, under both the Democratic and Working Families labels. The other two WFP nominees are not seeking the Democratic nomination.