Democracy Now! web page has a link to the “three-hour” presidential debate, which includes Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson. The reason it is twice as long as the Commission on Presidential Debates is that the format paused the CPD debate and gave equal time to the two minor party presidential candidates who attended the Democracy Now! event in a church in Denver.

The introduction says that Gary Johnson had been invited to the event, but that he chose not to participate. Instead, he issued live commentary about the debate via Google Plus Hangout and Twitter. IndependentPoliticalReport has this link to the Johnson responses.

One of the disadvantages of both approaches is that, probably, everyone interested in the presidential election prefers to watch the CPD debate live, because it is very newsworthy. Democracy Now! would probably get more viewers if it simply deleted the Obama and Romney portions, and let viewers watch the Anderson and Stein responses, so that the viewer interested in their responses isn’t forced to sit through the Obama-Romney portions all over again.

On October 3, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell enjoined Montana’s contribution limits for state office, which are $130 for legislature, and $500 for Governor/Lieutenant Governor. Here is the brief five-page order, which does not explain the judge’s reasoning; that will come later. However, it is clear that the basis is that the limits are too low. The case is Lair v Murry, cv 12-12. The decision also enjoins the limits on how much political parties may give to their own nominees. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

Rocky Anderson, the Justice Party presidential candidate, filed last month as a declared write-in presidential candidate in the District of Columbia. On October 1, he asked the D.C. Board of Elections to tally his write-ins. His letter explains that Title 3, section 6, of the U.S. code requires jurisdictions with presidential electors to tell the National Archivist the exact number of votes received by each qualified candidate for presidential elector.

In 2008, Libertarian nominee Bob Barr was the only presidential candidate who filed for write-in status in D.C. The D.C. Board did not tally his write-ins. The Libertarian Party sued, but lost. However, the lawsuit did not mention the national law about tallying votes for presidential electors, because when the Libertarian case was filed, the party didn’t know about this law.

As far as is known, Anderson is the only declared write-in presidential candidate to have filed in D.C. as a write-in. However, the deadline is not until near the end of October. It isn’t easy to file for declared write-in status in D.C., because the candidate must certify the names of three presidential elector candidates who have lived in D.C. for the last three years. Candidates on the ballot in D.C. this year, besides the two major party nominees, are Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.