Kentucky has the easiest petition requirement of any state, for candidates running in party primaries.  They only need 2 valid signatures, plus a filing fee.  On October 13, a lower state court declared that the Republican nominee in the 44th state house district, Gail Powers, only submitted one valid signature.  The other signature she submitted is from a registered voter who lives outside the 44th district.  See this story.

The story also says that the Democratic nominee for state house, 37th district, is also being challenged for the same reason.  It is too late for these candidates’ names to be removed from the ballot, but if a candidate is determined to have failed to submit a valid petition, votes for that person will not be counted.  Kentucky permits write-ins in the general election, if the write-in candidate files a declaration of write-in candidacy by October 22.  But it would be difficult for anyone to be a write-in candidate if that person’s name were printed on the ballot.  It would be difficult to explain to voters that they should ignore the name of the candidate that is printed on the ballot, yet that same voter should cast a write-in vote for that candidate.

The filing fee to run for the legislature is $200.

On October 12, Laura Wells, Green Party gubernatorial candidate in California, was arrested for trying to sit in the audience at a debate at which her two major party opponents were the only invited debaters.  See this story.  Also see this more extensive coverage from GreenPartyWatch.

On October 10, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s daily newspaper, endorsed Matt Cantrell, the Libertarian nominee, for State Treasurer.  See here.  Thanks to Dan Walker for the link.