U.S. District Court Judge Roberto A. Lange will hold a hearing in Constitution Party of South Dakota v Nelson on July 16, at 3 p.m.  This is the case that challenges the number of signatures needed for a member of a small qualified party to get on that party’s primary ballot.  South Dakota requires 250 signatures for Constitution Party members this year to run for statewide office, and only registered party members may sign.  The Constitution Party only has 345 registered members in the state.  Judge Lange is an Obama appointee.  UPDATE:  this hearing has been changed from July 16 to July 15.

The South Dakota law is peculiar.  If the Constitution Party had polled at least 8,388 votes for Governor in November 2006, then its members running in 2010 for statewide office would only need 84 signatures of party members.  But because the Constitution Party only polled 4,010 votes in November 2006 for Governor, it is treated as a “new” party and “new” parties have a more difficult primary petition requirement.

The Libertarian Party won a lawsuit on this same issue in South Dakota in 2000, but that lawsuit was won on statutory construction grounds.  In 2007 the legislature changed the law’s wording, so now the same issue must be fought all over again, on constitutional grounds this time.

On June 28, U.S. Senator Robert Byrd died.  He had been first elected to that seat in 1958, and was 92 years old.  West Virginia law says a special election must be held if the vacancy occurred more than two and one-half years before the end of the term.  The next regular election for this seat would have been in 2012.  Byrd died more than two and one-half years before end of his term.  So, one would think there will be a special election in 2010 to fill the last two years of his seat.

On the other hand, there is no provision for a special election that occurs too late for a primary, and no provision for a special primary.  West Virginia’s primary this year was May 11.  See this Washington Post story.

The Washington Post story does not mention that the deadline for independent candidates, and for the nominees of unqualified parties, is August 1.  In theory, candidates could get on the ballot for a special election by petition, if they act fairly quickly, but how this impacts on the state’s decision on whether to hold a special election is undetermined.  UPDATE:  the deadline is July 30, not August 1.  Thanks to Jeff Becker for that correction.

Kristin Davis, who sought the New York Libertarian Party gubernatorial nomination earlier this year, but failed to obtain it, now says that she will petition onto the November ballot this year as the gubernatorial nominee of the Reform Party.  The Reform Party name has not appeared on the New York ballot before.  The New York state affiliate of the national Reform Party between 1995 and 2000 was the Independence Party.  Thanks to Tom Stevens for this news.

The Reform Party is still ballot-qualified in Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  The New York Independence Party is also still ballot-qualified, but it cut its ties with the national Reform Party in 2000.

Kristin Davis is somewhat well-known in New York state, as the ex-madam who gained fame when Eliot Spitzer, who was elected Governor of New York in 2006, resigned after a sex scandal.