On January 3, Georgia State Administrative Judge Michael M. Malihi refused to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges President Barack Obama’s spot on the March 6 Georgia Democratic presidential primary. The lawsuit was filed by various Georgia voters, who argue that Obama does not meet the constitutional qualifications to be President. These voters will now have an opportunity to present evidence, in a hearing set for January 26, unless the January 3 order is overturned on appeal.

The January 3 ruling is four pages, and says that the Georgia law, permitting challenges to the ballot position of candidates, applies to presidential primaries just as much as it applies to any other primary or election. Here is an article about the lawsuit that appeared two weeks ago in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. One of the attorneys who brought the case, J. Mark Hatfield, is a Republican state representative from Waycross who introduced a bill last year, HB 401, to require presidential candidates to submit proof of qualifications. That bill did not pass. Another of the attorneys is Orly Taitz. The case is Farrar v Obama. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

Representative Jack Harper of Arizona has introduced HB 2027 into the 2012 session of the legislature. It moves the names of presidential elector candidates on the November ballot so they come before the names of vice-presidential nominees.

Under current law, the November ballots carry the names of a presidential candidate, and then the name of his or her vice-presidential running mate, and then the names of the eleven candidates for presidential elector pledged to that ticket. If the bill passes, the ballot will instead show the presidential candidate, and then the candidates for presidential elector, and then the vice-presidential candidate.

Governor Jan Brewer caused this bill to be introduced. Before 2011, Arizona didn’t list vice-presidential nominees on the ballot at all. Governor Brewer signed a bill in 2011 to add vice-presidential nominees’ names to the ballot, but she didn’t like the fact that the 2011 bill put the vice-presidential nominee’s name above the presidential elector candidates’ names on the ballot. She told the 2011 bill sponsor that she would sign his bill, but that he must promise to introduce a new bill in 2012 to switch the order, and he has now kept his promise.

Arizona is one of only six states that still prints the names of presidential elector candidates on the ballot. The others are Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Idaho. The names of the presidential elector candidates in Arizona take up quite a bit of room on the ballot. Chances are there will be 66 or so candidates for presidential elector from Arizona this November.

Bradblog.com has this post, documenting that the Iowa Republican caucuses don’t require government photo-ID in order to vote in the Iowa Republican caucus tonight, even though the Iowa Republican Party sets the rules for its own caucuses. The blog post also has interesting information about the rules that let anyone register as a Republican on caucus day, and then to participate. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.