Earlier in 2009, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office had been saying the blank petition forms to qualify a new party for the 2010 election would not be available until October 1, 2009. The reason they would not be available earlier was that the Secretary of State might wish to alter them.

However, in response to a lawsuit filed on May 7, 2009, by the New Mexico Libertarian Party and the New Mexico Green Party, the state submitted an affidavit on September 21, 2009, saying “The forms minor parties must use to collect the signatures required by Sec. 1-7-2(A) are available to the public at any time.” Although this concession comes too late to be particularly helpful for the upcoming election, it certainly will be helpful in the future. Thanks to Alan Woodruff for this news. The lawsuit is proceeding, and the New Mexico Secretary of State participated in a deposition on September 25.

The 5th circuit will hear oral arguments in Brian Moore v Hosemann, 09-60272, on November 4, 2009, in Houston. This is the case on whether the Mississippi Secretary of State should have accepted paperwork to put Brian Moore on the November 2008 ballot. The paperwork arrived ten minutes past 5 p.m. However, the Mississippi election code only gives the date on which such paperwork is due, not the hour. Other election law deadlines in Mississippi do provide a precise hourly deadline, but the law on when presidential elector declarations of candidacy are due does not.

In many states it is common for state elections officials to keep extended hours on deadline days when there is no hour specified.

Brian Moore was the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate last year, but he had also been nominated by the Natural Law Party of Mississippi, which is still ballot-qualified. The only other state in which the Natural Law Party is still ballot-qualified is Michigan. The Michigan unit of the party nominated Ralph Nader for president in 2008.

The D.C. Board of Elections has obtained a two-week extension of time to respond to the Libertarian Party’s lawsuit in Libertarian Party v D.C. Board of Elections. This is the case on whether the Constitution requires the Board to have tallied write-in votes for Bob Barr in the November 2008 election. The new deadline is October 13.