Filing has closed for the Pennsylvania primaries for all federal and state office this year. Pennsylvania has 203 State House districts. Of those 203 districts, in 103 of them, either no Republican filed to be on the Republican primary, or no Democrat filed in the Democratic primary.

At the April 2008 primaries, primary voters are free to nominate candidates by write-in vote. But no one can be nominated unless he or she receives at least 200 write-in votes. This is difficult, so it is likely that there will be very few, if any, major party nominations filled by write-ins at the primaries.

In 2008, there are 56 districts in which no Republican filed, and 47 districts in which no Democrat filed. By contrast, in 2006, there were 44 State House districts with no Republican on the November ballot, and 29 with no Democrat.

On February 5, the North Carolina Democratic and Republican Parties told the State Board of Elections which names to list on presidential primary ballots.

Democrats on the list are Hillary Clinton, Mike Gravel, and Barack Obama.

Republicans on the list are Mike Huckabee, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney.

The State Board of Elections will meet in early March to decide whether to remove Mitt Romney’s name, since he has withdrawn. The primary is May 6.

The Pennsylvania Constitution Party earlier decided to bring a new federal lawsuit against certain Pennsylvania election laws. Since then, the Pennsylvania Green Party and the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party have decided to join the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is likely to challenge four Pennsylvania laws or practices: (1) Pennsylvania’s unique system of forcing candidates whose petitions are successfully challenged, to pay for the costs of determining that the petition was insufficient; (2) the practice of many Pennsylvania counties of failing to count any write-in votes, even though under state law all write-ins are valid; (3) Pennsylvania’s failure to tally registrations for parties that are not qualified parties but which do place nominees on the November ballot; (4) the wording on the petition that says the signers are “nominating” the listed candidates.

The basis for point (1) is that the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that states cannot force voters, parties, and candidates to pay for the costs of administering elections. The basis for point (3) is a string of favorable precedents on the same issue from courts in Colorado, Oklahoma, New Jersey, New York and Iowa. The basis for point (4) is a string of favorable precedents from federal courts in Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia, striking down restrictive wording on petitions for minor parties or their candidates.