On October 25, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller expedited the lawsuit Hall v Bennett. A status conference will be held on Monday, October 28, at 9 a.m., in Montgomery. The issue is whether Alabama must relax its ballot access requirements for the upcoming December 17 special election, for the vacant U.S. House seat, First District. The plaintiff, James Hall, an independent candidate, submitted 2,835 signatures by the state-imposed September deadline. The law requires almost 6,000 valid signatures (3% of the last gubernatorial vote within the district).

The lawsuit is based on Eleventh Circuit precedent that when the normal petitioning time is not available, the state must either reduce the number of signatures, or extend the deadline somewhat. Normally, independent candidates in Alabama can take as long as they wish to complete the petition. In this case, of course, because the special election was a surprise event, the normal petitioning period was far shorter than in regularly-scheduled elections. The Republican Party still hasn’t chosen its nominee, but it will do so in a run-off primary on November 5.

See this Uncovered Politics post, which links to news stories that the Purple PAC will make independent expenditures of at least $300,000 to promote Rob Sarvis, the Libertarian nominee for Virginia Governor. The money, or most of it, will be used for television advertising.

Meanwhile, the October 25 New York Times has this lengthy story about the Virginia race, and manages to avoid any mention of Sarvis whatsoever.

On October 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd circuit, enjoined a New York state law that doesn’t permit anyone to contribute more than $150,000 to a committee that is making independent expenditures for or against a candidate. An individual wanted to contribute $200,000 to a group that intends to make independent expenditures on behalf of the Republican candidate for Mayor of New York city, Joseph Lhota.

The case is New York Progress and Protection PAC v Walsh, 13-3889. The three judges who signed the order are Jacob Dennis (a Bush Sr. appointee), Raymond Lohier (an Obama appointee), and John Koeltl (a Clinton appointee). Here is the order. The U.S. District Court had refused to enjoin the law, saying it isn’t good policy to change the rules so close to an election. Thanks to Rick Hasen and Thomas Jones for the link.