Maine city and town clerks are accepting the “late” filings of signatures by Barr supporters. The August 8 deadline is considered a “soft deadline,” since the signatures are not due in the Secretary of State’s office until August 15. The clerks have used their discretionary powers to accept signatures by today.

Barr supporters say they will be submitting at least 5,676 signatures toward the 4,000 requirement.

In related news, Barr was today certified for the ballot in South Dakota and Kentucky. Check our ballot access chart for the latest, updated daily.

On August 11, two ballot-qualified parties in Oregon filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that the actual text of the Oregon election law does permit two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. The plaintiffs include the Working Families Party and the Independent Party. The WFP wants to cross-endorse Peter Buckley, a Democratic nominee for the state house. The Independent Party wants to cross-endorse Joel Haugen, a Republican nominee for U.S. House, First District.

On August 13, Bob Barr filed a federal lawsuit against the West Virginia petition deadline for independent and unqualified party candidates for president. The suit depends on Anderson v Celebrezze. Also it depends on the fact that West Virginia requires a higher percentage of the last presidential vote cast, on a petition, of any state (for president) except that Oklahoma is worse and North Carolina is equally bad. The case is Barr v Ireland, 2:08cv-0990.

Lawsuits against early August petition deadlines won in Rhode Island in 1976 (McCarthy v Noel) and against Alaska in 1992 (Libertarian Party v Coghill). There haven’t been many other such lawsuits.