On October 28, the 6th circuit ruled 2-1 that Tennessee may continue to bar ex-felons from registering to vote if they owe child support or restitution payments.  See the opinion, Johnson v Bredesen, here.  This is another case, similar to the one decided two days ago by the 9th circuit on voter registration, that had been pending for over a year since the oral argument.

The majority consists of Judges Deborah Cook and Thomas Ludington, Bush Jr. appointees.  The dissent is by Karen Moore, a Clinton appointee.  The dissent is considerably longer than the majority opinion, and argues that the law does not pass the rational basis test, and that inability to pay child support is not a crime.

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.