On November 26, 2007, a New Hampshire state court had ruled unconstitutional a law that said the statewide list of registered voters should be given to qualified political parties, but no one else. Only the Democratic and Republican Parties are qualified in New Hampshire.

On February 12, the court held another hearing to decide what to do about the fact that the Democratic and Republican Parties had already received the list. Here is a Concord Monitor story about that hearing. The Libertarian Party, which brought the lawsuit, turned down the idea that the solution is just to give the statewide list to the party. This was a principled decision, since the list is very valuable, as the article reveals. Thanks to Marc Montoni for the link.

CNN’s election night coverage for Maryland, Virginia and D.C. is here. Maryland polls are open until 9:30 pm so any Maryland returns will be late.

On February 12, Pennsylvania’s Governor issued an order, extending the filing period for candidates seeking a place on Democratic and Republican primary ballots, from 5 p.m. on Tuesday (February 12), to noon on Thursday (February 14). The reason was that wintery weather had slowed down transportation.

Notwithstanding the extension, the only five presidential candidates who had been expected to file a petition, did so. They are Hillary Clinton and Barack in the Democratic primary; and Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Ron Paul in the Republican primary. Each needed 2,000 signatures of party members, plus additional petitions to qualify candidates for Delegate in various U.S. House districts.