The Republican Party national convention won’t choose a national ticket formally until September 4, 2008. This is beyond the legal deadline for qualified parties to certify their nominees, in a few states.

Recently, bills to ease the deadline have advanced in two states. California SB 293, which applies only to the Republican Party and only to the 2008 election, passed the Senate Elections Committee on April 18. It says the state party chair is supposed to guess who will be nominated, and certify those guesses before the party’s actual convention. The bill doesn’t really explain how to handle the situation if the chair can’t guess, or if his or her guess is wrong.

Montana HB 520 is a better approach. It says that if a party certifies its nominees later than the end of August, that the Secretary of State must accomodate the party, even if the ballots must be reprinted or otherwise altered. HB 520 passed the legislature on April 5.