On April 7, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas announced that he will not veto S. 117, the bill that moves the primary from September to August. Governor Douglas doesn’t approve of the bill, but he is letting it become law without his signature. UPDATE: see this newspaper story about the new law.
The bill moves the deadline for independent candidate petitions from September to June. Even independent presidential candidate petitions are now due in June. Courts in four states have ruled that June deadlines for independent presidential candidate petitions are too early. Those four states are Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, and South Dakota. The first three are not reported. The South Dakota decision is reported as Nader v Hazeltine, 110 F.Supp.2d 1201.
How do the major parties (officially) designate their presidential nominees? I found the procedure for designating the presidential electors, and that the presidential and vice presidential candidate should appear on the ballot. Maybe the SOS has been making it up as he goes along.