Gov. Jim Justice defeated Democratic challenger Ben Santiago to win reelection in West Virginia.

Justice, who ran as a Democrat in 2016 narrowly defeating incumbent Bill Cole before switching party affiliations, comfortably secured his second term receiving twice as many votes as his challenger.

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.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper defeated Republican challenger Dan Forest to win reelection.

The election was close heading into the evening, but Cooper secured his second term in office.

Republican Mark Robinson defeated Democrat Yvonne Holley to become North Carolina’s first African American Lieutenant Governor.

On November 3, four of the ward seats for the Council of the District of Columbia City were up for election.

Incumbent Trayon White won re-election for Washington D.C. City Council Ward 8.

Meanwhile, incumbent Vincent Gray retained his seat in the general election for the Ward 7 seat in the City Council.

Janeese Lewis George, who describes herself as a democratic socialist, won the City Council Ward 4 seat.

Incumbent Brooke Pinto, who won a special election in June, kept City Council Ward 2 position by winning the November 3 election.

Additionally, Robert White of the Democratic Party won an at-large seat with the council.

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.

Oye Owolewa won election as the District of Columbia’s Shadow Representative.

Unlike the District’s non-voting Delegate to the House, the Shadow Representative is not able to vote in both floor votes and committee votes and is not recognized as an actual member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Along with Owolewa’s goal to achieve statehood for the District, the underlying goal of all shadow representatives, he has expressed an objective of ending federal taxes for the District until it achieves full political representation.

Franklin Garcia, currently serving in the position, did not seek reelection.

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%.

Paul Eric Strauss was re-elected as the senior U.S. shadow Senator for the District of Columbia.

The junior U.S. shadow Senator for the District is Mike Brown.

While not officially sworn in or seated with the U.S. Senate, the main goal is to seek voting representation in the U.S. Congress for the District.

Neither Strauss nor Brown receive pay or have offices in the US Capitol.

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.

On November 3, Democratic Party candidate Eleanor Holmes Norton won re-election to the district’s U.S. House Non-Voting Delegate seat for the District of Columbia.

Holmes, who has held the office since 1991, beat Libertarian Party candidate Patrick Hynes and six other declared candidates.

In her position as a non-voting member of the House, Norton can perform most of the duties and responsibilities of members from states but may not vote for or against the final passage of legislation.

Voters across Puerto Rico await final results on November 4 following elections that saw long lines and produced a tight gubernatorial race.

Candidate Pedro Pierluisi holds a slight lead over Carlos Delgado Altieri and several other candidates in the race for governor.

Pierluisi, the candidate for the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, is the territory’s former non-voting representative in Congress.

He also briefly served as governor following huge street protests last year that led to the resignation of former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.

Rosselló was forced out of office in August 2019 amid mass street protests and corruption allegations.

His successor, Wanda Vázquez Garced, battled the pandemic and earthquakes until Pierluisi won the gubernatorial primary earlier this year.

Pierluisi also trailed gubernatorial opponents Juan Dalmau of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, Alexandra Lúgaro of Citizen Victory Movement, César Vázquez of the Dignity Project, and independent candidate Eliezer Molina.

With more than 95% of the votes counted, Pierluisi leads Altieri 32.40% to 31.36%.

On November 3, voters in New Mexico approved a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to adjust the term of a state, county, or district officer.

House Joint Resolution 8, or Amendment 2, allows the legislature to adjust the term of a state, county, or district officer to align or stagger the election of officers for a particular state, county, or district office throughout the state.

Additionally, the amendment will clarify that officers elected to fill a vacancy in office must take office on the first day of January following their election.

The amendment became effective upon voter approval.

As of 7:00 a.m. November 4, with 96% of the precincts reporting, the amendment passed 64% to 35.7%.

On November 3, voters in Arkansas approved a constitutional amendment to impose term limits for state legislators.

Issue 2 creates term limits of 12 consecutive years for state legislators with the opportunity to return after a four-year break.

Arkansas previously had a 16-year lifetime term limit for state legislators.

The 12-year limit will apply to anyone elected in 2021 or after.

Those first elected to the legislature before 2021 will keep the state’s existing term limit of 16 years, but they will be eligible to run for election again after four years.

As of 7:00 a.m. November 4, with more than 95% of the precincts reporting, the amendment passed 55.4% to 44.6%.