On Saturday, November 17, Louisiana held run-off elections for all state offices in which no one had polled 50% in the first round in October. In State House district 55, independent Jerome “Dee” Richard defeated his Democratic opponent, Michael Matherne, by 58.6% to 41.4%. The 55th district is in Lafourche Parish.

Louisiana now has two independents in the legislature. The other one, Joel Robideaux, had been elected outright in October.

There are 153 instances at which someone has been elected to state office during the period 1980 through 2007, even though he or she was not the Democratic or Republican nominee (this list excludes non-partisan elections). The December 1, 2007 printed Ballot Access News will include the entire list.

On Saturday, it was revealed that Democrat Brian Scavo had defeated Green Party nominee David Lussier by 23 votes. They were the only two candidates running for Albany County (New York) legislature, 7th district. Earlier reports had Lussier winning by five votes. But now that the absentee paper ballots have been counted, the outcome has been reversed. The outcome still isn’t final or official.

On November 15, the Massachusetts Senate passed SB 2414 by a vote of 33-5. It moves the presidential primary from March to February 5. The new deadline for qualified parties to tell the Secretary of State whom to list on those presidential primary ballots becomes December 6, 2007. Massachusetts has 4 ballot-qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Green, and Working Families.