On October 4, the seven candidates for President of Ireland held a televised debate. This story about that debate was written just as the debate was beginning.

If the United States held inclusive general election presidential debates, and invited every candidate who was on the ballot in enough states to theoretically be elected, there would never have been a U.S. presidential election with a number of candidates greater than seven who would have been eligible for such debates. In 2008 and 2004 there would have been six such candidates.

On October 3, New Hampshire said the filing period for candidates running in the state’s presidential primaries will be between October 17 and October 28. Candidates get on the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries in New Hampshire by paying $1,000. No petition is needed. The date of the primary is still not set. Every other state that holds a presidential primary has now set its date. But New Hampshire won’t set its date until it knows the dates of the caucuses in Iowa and Nevada.

The plaintiffs in Maslow v Board of Elections in the City of New York, who recently lost their lawsuit in the 2nd circuit, will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal. The issue is whether a state may make it illegal for anyone to circulate a petition to get a candidate on a partisan primary ballot unless the circulator is a registered member of the same party.

One of the weaknesses in the state’s position is that the state law makes an exception for an individual who is a Notary Public, or a Commissioner of Deeds. Such a person may circulate petitions to put a candidate on a primary ballot, no matter what party he or she is registered in. The state defends its restriction as a way to protect political parties from unwanted interference from members of another party, but that argument is undercut by the exception for Notaries Public and Commissioners of Deeds.

An interesting aspect of the lawsuit is that one of the plaintiffs who wants to circulate a petition is the wife of one of the candidates. Because the wife is a registered Democrat, she couldn’t circulate petitions for her husband, because he was running in a Republican primary.