On February 29, South Dakota officials said that a party that wants to be on the general election ballot for President and certain other state offices still needs 6,936 valid signatures after all, but the signatures aren’t due until July 11.

On February 26, they had seemed to say that a party that just wants to be on for President and certain other state offices does not need a petition at all. The February 26 Attorney General’s letter said, “If a new political party files a written declaration to organize pursuant to SDCL 12-5-1 by July 11, 2016, that party could nominate candidates at a state convention for the offices outlined in SDCL 12-5-21.” The semantic problem is that when they said, “written declaration”, they meant “petition.”

As of 1:30 p.m. central time, the Mississippi Secretary of State still hasn’t asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the decision of the Mississippi Supreme Court that put Willie Wilson on the Democratic presidential primary ballot. The Mississippi primary is March 8. The state supreme court decision came down on Thursday, February 25, and later that same day, the Secretary of State said he would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wilson had enough valid signatures to be on the ballot, but Mississippi provides that such petitions be submitted to the political party, so Wilson submitted his signatures to the Democratic Party, which erroneously believed that the petition was not valid. Later the party realized its mistake and informed the Secretary of State, but he said it was too late to correct the error because many ballots had already been printed.

The Secretary of State has expressed publicly the idea that the Mississippi Democratic Party should reimburse the state for the extra costs associated with adding Wilson to the ballot.

Several southern states provide that candidates in partisan primaries submit declarations of candidacy and petitions to the major political party, and then the party transfers the documents to state election officials. That policy appears unwise. If the government is paying for the primary administration, it makes more sense to have candidates file with the government.