On August 29, in an administrative proceding, Terpsichore Maras was removed from the Ohio ballot as an independent candidate for Secretary of State. See this story. She had been the only statewide independent or minor party candidate on the Ohio November ballot this year.

BAN had previously believed that California and Kentucky were the only states (that have statewide races in 2022) who would have a Republican-Democratic monopoly on the ballot for all statewide races. But now it seems that Ohio will also be one of those states. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for the link.

On September 28, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Kowall v Benson, 21-1360. This is the case in which some Michigan voters and candidates are trying to topple the legislative term limits of Michigan, which are quite severe. The lower courts had upheld the term limits law.

On August 24, the proponents of an initiative in Montana asked the Ninth Circuit for rehearing en banc in Pierce v Jacobsen, 21-35173. They only want a rehearing on the part of the August 10 decision that declined to strike down the Montana ban on paying initiative circulators on a per-signature basis. They already won the other half of the case, against the out-of-state ban.

The Ninth Circuit on August 10 had declined to rule against the per-signature ban on the grounds that the evidence wasn’t sufficient. But the initiative supporters argue that their evidence is strong enough.