On August 13, the North Carolina Libertarian Party received $39,691 from the State Board of Elections. UPDATE: Democrats received $429,736; Republicans $264,951. This money is from the North Carolina state income tax forms. Those forms permit taxpayers to send a small donation to the party of their choice. This is the first time the Libertarian Party has received such funds in North Carolina since 2003, when it received $701. North Carolina law says only parties with registration of 1% should be on the tax form. However, the official who printed the tax forms late last year ignored that law, and printed the Libertarian Party on the form anyway, even though its registration was only .07%. The registration was low because all the party’s registrants had been erased in late 2005 because the party did not requalify quickly for 2006; instead it requalified in 2008 and remains qualified.

The New York Daily News of August 12 has this story about petitioning candidates for New York city Mayor starting to submit their petitions. The deadline is not until August 18, but already the Socialist Workers Party, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, have submitted their petitions.

On August 12, U.S. District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Clinton appointee, upheld South Carolina election laws that permit fusion, but which also say that if someone gets the nomination of one party first, and later tries to get the nomination of a second party and fails, then the first nomination is voided. South Carolina Green Party v South Carolina State Election Commission, 3:08-cv-02790.

The plaintiff-candidate, Eugene Platt, had been nominated first for a legislative seat in 2008 by the Green Party. Then he tried to win the Democratic primary for the same seat, but he lost, so the state wouldn’t let him appear on the November ballot as the Green Party nominee. The decision says the burden on the Green Party was not severe, since the state would have let it choose another nominee. Here is the decision.