Colorado has five ballot-qualified parties, and their presidential nominees go on the November ballot automatically. Also, Colorado lets the presidential nominees of unqualified parties, and also independent presidential candidates, get on the ballot by paying $500 and submitting a list of presidential elector candidates. So far, the only presidential candidate who has filed under that procedure is Gene Amondson of the Prohibition Party. The deadline is June 17. Amondson is also already on the ballot in Florida.

Colorado has the 4th earliest deadline in the nation for independent presidential candidates to get on the ballot. The only states that are earlier are Texas, Arizona and North Carolina. No one qualified by petition in Texas this year for president, and only Ralph Nader submitted an independent petition in Arizona. No independent presidential candidate is expected to qualify in North Carolina.

Filing for the Washington state August primary closes at the end of the day, Friday, June 6. As of 11:00 am, Pacific time, few minor party candidates had filed. The only minor party candidates for the 8 statewide partisan offices are three Constitution Party members, and one from the Party of Commons.

For US House, the only minor party candidates so far are one Green, one Libertarian, and one Constitution Party member.

For state legislature, there are so far two Greens, one Progressive, one Progressive Democrat, one from America’s Third Party, and one from the No Gas Taxes Party.

A substantial number of Republicans are filing as preferring the “GOP Party” or just the “R Party”, and a few Democrats are filing as preferring the “D Party”.

The U.S. Supreme Court, for several decades, has generally only heard two oral arguments per day. According to Howard Bashman’s How Appealing Blog, the Chief Justice has just said at a judicial conference that the Court will start hearing three cases per day in the autumn 2008 season. This is good news for groups that are seeking to have the Supreme Court hear their cases.