On October 26, the Republican nominee for Connecticut Attorney General, Martha Dean, brought a lawsuit in state court to disqualify her Democratic opponent, George Jepsen.  See this story.

Earlier this year, the Connecticut Supreme Court had ruled that Susan Bysiewicz, the Democratic Secretary of State who wanted to run for Attorney General this year, does not meet the statutory qualifications to be Attorney General.  Although the Supreme Court issued its conclusion in May, it didn’t explain itself until last week.  When the decision came down, it said that no one is qualified to be Attorney General unless the person has litigated cases in court for ten years.  Dean charges that Jepsen does not qualify because he allegedly does not have ten years of experience trying cases.  He is an attorney who has been “of counsel” for many lawsuits.  That means he advises the attorneys who are actually doing the litigating.

The ballots have already been printed, so Dean is asking that the election for Attorney General be postponed.  There is a third nominee on the ballot for Attorney General, Stephen Fournier.  He is the Green Party nominee.

On October 25, and again on October 26, lower state Kentucky courts ruled that two candidates for the legislature are not qualified because they did not have enough valid signatures.  See this story.  One candidate is an independent, who needed 100 signatures.  The other is the Democratic nominee in his district.  He needed two signatures to get on the primary ballot but only had one valid.

Because the ballots are already printed, notices will be posted in polling places that votes for these two candidates will not be counted.

On October 27, the California Secretary of State released the results of mock elections for Governor, U.S. Senator, and some state ballot propositions.  These elections are held in many California schools.  The results are from 389 schools, and involve the votes of 105,000 students.  A few schools have yet to report.

For Governor, the student vote is:  Jerry Brown, Democrat, 48.8%; Meg Whitman, Republican, 22.5%; Carlos Alvarez, Peace & Freedom, 15.0%; Laura Wells, Green, 5.8%; Chelene Nightingale, American Independent, 4.9%; Dale Ogden, Libertarian, 2.9%.

U.S. Senate:  Barbara Boxer, Democrat, 48.5%; Carly Fiorina, Republican, 22.4%; Marsha Feinland, Peace & Freedom, 11.5%; Duane Roberts, Green, 7.3%; Edward Noonan, American Independent, 6.1%; Gail Lightfoot, Libertarian, 4.4%.

Student “mock elections” in California traditionally show more support for minor parties than is present in the electorate.  In 2008, the California “mock election” for President had been:  Obama, 73.8%; McCain, 20.7%; Nader, 2.4%; McKinney, 1.5%; Barr, 1.0%; Keyes, .7%.