Connecticut elections officials say the Libertarian presidential petition lacks approximately 500 valid signatures. Libertarian activist Andy Rule will be reviewing these findings. The party submitted over 12,000 signatures to meet a requirement of exactly 7,500 signatures, but elections officials say only 54% of the signatures were valid.

The Constitution and Green Parties this year did not collect as many as 7,500 raw signatures, so if the Libertarian petition re-verification process does not succeed, Ralph Nader will be the only presidential candidate on the ballot other than Barack Obama and John McCain. Connecticut permits write-ins for declared presidential candidates.

A U.S. District Court Judge in Montana will hear Kelly v Johnson on Friday, September 19. The issue is whether Montana’s new independent deadline for non-presidential candidates is constitutional or not. The deadline was moved last year from June to March. Another issue in the case is whether it is constitutional for Montana to require more than twice as many signatures for a single independent candidate, than for an entire new party.

On September 15, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth ruled against the challenge to Bob Barr’s substitution paperwork. The challenge had been filed by a Republican Party official in Cumberland County, and he had been represented by several attorneys, including one who regularly handles legal business for the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. The decision is seven pages.

The decision says, “In nominating Etzel prior to the Libertarian National Convention and substituting Barr thereafter, the Party and LPPa merely complied with the Party’s election process as it has been established in Pennsylvania since 1996 when, nationally, the Party moved its convention from a date prior to the legal date for circulation of Pennsylvania nomination papers to a subsequent date. Since then, given the time constraints, the Party and LPPa have deemed it necessary to circulate nomination papers prior to their national convention in order to take full and fair advantage of the time period allotted under Pennsylvania’s Election Code to secure the necessary signatures in support of their candidate…the Party simply took reasonable action to abide by the Election Code while furthering its legitimate interest.”