December 7 is the deadline in Ohio for petitions to get on the primary ballot. The Washington Times reported that Newt Gingrich probably would fail to submit petitions on time, but then other newspapers reported that the Washington Times is story is not really accurate.

Ohio doesn’t require any petitions for presidential candidates to appear on the primary ballot, but does require 50 signatures for the presidential candidate’s delegates from each U.S. House district, for major party presidential primaries. Because the presidential primary delegate selection process is tied to separate contests in each U.S. House district, it is possible for a candidate to be on the ballot in some U.S. House districts and not others. Also, it means that Ohio can’t hold a presidential primary until it has its U.S. House district boundaries settled.

Because Ohio is late to have its U.S. House district boundaries known for sure, the legislature passed a bill earlier this year moving the presidential primary and the U.S. House primary to June 14. So, even though under the existing law all presidential primary petitions are due today, along with U.S. House petitions, the Secretary of State expects to have a second, later deadline for those kind of petitions as soon as the district lines are settled. That is why Gingrich will get another chance to submit primary petitions later.

Here is the original Washington Times story, which is very worth reading, because it quotes various Republican Party leaders who say the ballot access process for presidential primaries is ridiculously complex and burdensome. And it is, but anyone who says the presidential primary petitioning process is too difficult really ought to look at the process for minor party and independent candidate ballot access. Here is a later story from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the links.

On November 6, New York’s Attorney General asked a U.S. District Court Judge in Albany to rule that the state must hold its non-presidential primary no later than August 18 (the statute says that primary should be in mid-September). But the state also is asking the judge not to choose any particular date earlier than August 18.

The hearing, which has been postponed three times, is now set for December 12. The Assembly, which has a Democratic majority, wants a June primary. The State Senate, which has a Republican majority, wants an August primary. See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp appointed an Elections Advisory Council on January 27, 2011. Sometime during December, the Council expects to release its recommendations for improvements in the Georgia election laws. The final recommendation will probably be to retain the 1% statewide petition requirement, and the 5% district petition requirement. However, the recommendation will be that the percentages be based on the last presidential vote, instead of the number of registered voters.

This would cut the number of signatures for statewide petitions from 51,845 signatures to 39,245, and cut the number of signatures for U.S. House from approximately 20,000, to approximately 15,000. UPDATE: it is always possible the final recommendations will be more favorable. Activists in Georgia are working for a better recommendation.