On October 1, at 4 p.m., an employee of the California Secretary of State’s office verbally stated that the Democratic and Republican Parties had not yet submitted their presidential elector candidates, although at that time the deadline was an hour away. A particular activist in a minor party, who was at the Secretary of State’s office at 4 p.m., remained in the office until closing time and believes that they were not filed by 5 p.m. That same activist again visited the Secretary of State’s office on October 2, but no one would discuss the matter. The activist asked for a list of the presidential elector candidates but the office refused to give the list to him.

There would be no practical consequences if the Democratic and Republican Parties were late with their California elector candidates. The ballots are already printed. California absentee ballots are available October 6. But, if it is true that the legal deadline was ignored, that is more reason to grant leniency when minor party and independent presidential candidates make similar mistakes.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Echols has set a hearing date of October 10, in Kurita v The State Primary Board of the Tennessee Democratic Party. This is the case that challenges the decision of the Democratic Party not to recognize Rosalind Kurita as their nominee for State Senate, even though she won the August Democratic primary. The party decertified her because it said too many Republicans voted in the Democratic primary.

The November 2008 Colorado ballot will list 16 presidential candidates. This is the most crowded ballot in U.S. history for president at a general election. The previous record was 14, set in 1992 in three states (Iowa, Tennessee, and Wisconsin).

This year, it appeared that 18 candidates would be on in Colorado. However, two candidates who filed by the June 17 deadline did not complete the filing. The law does not require the candidates for presidential elector to be submitted on June 17. Elvena Lloyd-Duffie of Chicago, and William R. Koenig of Alexandria, Virginia, did not submit candidates for presidential elector. Koenig decided not to submit any candidates for elector because he decided that he supports John McCain for president. His original ballot label had been “unaffiliated”. It is not known why Elvena Lloyd-Duffie did not complete her filing. Since she had chosen the ballot label “Republican”, even if she had completed her filing, the Secretary of State would have required a different label.

The sixteen candidates who are on are the nominees of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Socialist, Socialism and Liberation, Socialist Workers, Prohibition, America’s Independent, Boston Tea, Objectivist, Pacifist, and Heartquake Parties. Two independent candidates on are Ralph Nader and Frank McEnulty; their label is “unaffiliated.”