Ohio Republicans maintained a supermajority in the state Senate and House of Representatives in yesterday’s election.

Most notably, Rep. Larry Householder was reelected after being removed from his leadership post as House speaker.

This came following his arrest and indictment earlier this year in connection with a $60 million federal racketeering case related to House Bill 6.

Householder was the only name on the ballot and was endorsed by the local Republican party.

Republican colleagues in the House considered removing him from the chamber earlier this fall.

However, if they had done so before his reelection they would not be able to remove him again, as a lawmaker cannot be expelled twice.

The only option now is to wait until the legislative session begins in January to consider expulsion or impeachment.

Householder would be automatically removed from office if he is convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Ohio law prohibits anyone convicted of a felony or bribery charges from holding public office.

Incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Parson won reelection as governor of Missouri over Democratic challenger Nicole Galloway by roughly 16 percentage points as of Wednesday morning with greater than 98% of votes counted.

Third-party candidates, Libertarian Rik Combs and Green Party candidate Jerome Bauer pulled in just over 2% of the votes combined.

Voters defeated a constitutional amendment that would have required approval of the legislature or voter approval twice for all initiated ballot measures.

The amendment needed a simple majority of votes to pass.

As of Wednesday morning, with 91% of votes counted, the measure was defeated by 24%.

Voters defeated a constitutional amendment changing the membership and meeting requirements of the state board of higher education.

The failure of the measure keeps the number of individuals who serve on the state board of higher education at eight and their terms of membership at four years.

The amendment would have increased board membership to 15 and increased membership terms to six years and prohibited state legislators, elected state officials, and full-time state employees from serving on the board.

As of Wednesday morning, with 91% of the votes counted, the measure was overwhelmingly defeated by 45%.

Incumbent Republican Gov. Doug Burgum easily won reelection in North Dakota.

As of Wednesday morning, with 86% of votes counted, Burgum prevailed over Democratic candidate Shelley Lenz by roughly 42 percentage points.

Additionally, Libertarian candidate DuWayne Hendrickson collected about 4 percent of votes.

Voters passed a constitutional amendment creating a lobbyist gift ban, reducing campaign contribution limits, and repealing redistricting.

The measure amends Article III of the Constitution to prohibit all gifts from lobbyists or lobbyist principals to members of the General Assembly, staff members, and anyone employed by the General Assembly.

The amendment also reduces contribution limits made to or accepted by any candidate or committee for state senator from $2,500 to $2,400 per election.

There is no change for candidates for state representative.

The amendment also modifies the criteria for redrawing legislative districts and changes the process for redrawing state legislative district boundaries during redistricting.

The change happens by repealing the post of nonpartisan state demographer and giving all redistricting responsibility to a bipartisan commission, renaming them as the House Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission and the Senate Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission, respectively.

Additionally, the amendment increases membership on the commissions to 20 by adding four commissioners appointed by the Governor from nominations by the two major political party’s state committees.

As of Wednesday morning, with 98% of votes counted, these constitutional amendments had narrowly passed by 2% and are effective immediately.

Missouri voters defeated a constitutional amendment that would have extended term limits currently applicable to the governor and treasurer to all statewide elected officials.

The failure of the amendment does not affect the term limits currently applicable to the governor and treasurer under Article IV, Section 17 of the Constitution.

Namely, that no person shall be elected governor or treasurer more than twice, and no person who has held the office of governor or treasurer, or acted as governor or treasurer, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected to the office of governor or treasurer shall be elected to the office of governor or treasurer more than once.

The amendment needed to receive a majority of votes to pass and as of Wednesday morning was defeated by only 4% with 98% of the votes counted.

Voters opposed holding a convention to explore proposals for changes to the state constitution.

This question automatically appears on the ballot every ten years pursuant to Article X, Section 3 of the Iowa Constitution.

As of Wednesday morning, with 92% of the vote counted, the measure is defeated by 40%.

Kentucky voters defeated a constitutional amendment that would have increased the terms of office for district judges and commonwealth attorneys in each circuit court district.

The amendment would have also increased the requirement for district judges of being a licensed attorney from two years to eight years.

The failure of the amendment keeps the term of office at four years for district judges and six years for a commonwealth attorney in each circuit court district.

As of Wednesday morning, with 96% of votes counted, the measure was defeated by 38%.

Incumbent Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb was reelected in the biggest statewide race on the ballot this year.

Holcomb defeated Democrat Dr. Woodrow A. Myers by roughly 28 percentage points, and third-party Libertarian candidate Donald Rainwater by over 45 percentage points as of Wednesday morning.

At the time of this post, 74% of votes are counted.

A group of nonpartisan organizations concerned with good governance in Illinois issued a statement calling for the immediate release of the Report of the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform.

The Commission was supposed to release the report on March 31.

Citing the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the committee members requested an extension in April.

However, this request was denied, leaving the completion date for the report open-ended.

In August, a group of Democratic lawmakers proposed a package of ethics reform bills for the General Assembly to take up during the veto session scheduled to begin on November 17.

Later that month House and Senate Republicans issued a demand for meetings of the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform to resume immediately.

No meetings have occurred and no report has been issued as the November 17 veto session approaches.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Board of Elections announced an amnesty period for late filers of the March 2020 quarterly report of campaign contributions and expenditures, due on April 15.

No penalties will be assessed for reports filed on or before June 30.

Similarly, no penalties will be assessed for late Schedule A-1 reports of contributions of $1,000 or more, due between March 18 and June 30, as long as they are filed on or before June 30.

Late reports (Quarterly or A-1) filed after June 30 will be subject to statutorily mandated penalties.

The Board’s one-time amnesty will not apply to the upcoming June 2020 Quarterly Report, which is due no later than July 15. 

The Board of Ethics announced a further delay in the implementation Ethics Ordinance 2019-5305, previously set for July 1, 2020.

The implementation will now be on January 1, 2021 due to the continuing work by the city and many non-profit organizations to respond to COVID-19 crisis.

The ordinance imposes new registration and reporting requirements on certain nonprofit interactions with the city.

With the announcement, the Board and the Mayor’s Office stated they are committed to working with non-profit organizations and stakeholders to understand and respond to their concerns about this law.

In addition, the office states they are committed on working toward amendments that increase transparency in Chicago.

Following a nearly two-and-a-half-month interruption, the Iowa Legislature adjourned the 88^th General Assembly sine die on Sunday after a marathon overnight debate.

This debate ends a two-week session shortened by the coronavirus pandemic and recent protests.

In addition to the passing the budget, the session included action to protect businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits, address police misconduct, and change rules regarding election procedures.