The New York Times has a very comprehensive account of the first general election Mayoral debate in New York city this year. Read from the bottom up. Only candidates who had raised at least $50,000 were invited to debate, so only Mayor Bloomberg and the Democratic nominee, Bill Thompson, were invited. The article says that Green Party nominee Billy Talen heckled the Mayor, and a commenter says Talen was then ejected. The commenter says two supporters of Francesca Villar, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, were also ejected.

On October 13, Ralph Nader filed his brief in the 9th circuit in Nader v Cronin, 08-16444. The case challenges the number of signatures needed for an independent presidential candidate in Hawaii, which is approximately 6 times as many signatures as are needed for an entire new party (which is entitled to its own primary, and the ability to run a nominee for every partisan office in the state).

This is the only constitutional ballot access case still pending in any court that was filed in 2004. It was delayed for years because the U.S. District Court was waiting for the State Supreme Court to rule on some of the issues in the case.

The well-known Atlantic Monthly has this short commentary on New Jersey ballot design, although the article fails to explain that the problem is much worse than discriminatory rules on the order of candidates. The real problem is that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party each have a party column, headed in big letters “Democratic” and “Republican”, respectively. All other candidates (in most counties) are squished into a third column labeled “Nomination by Petition”.