If all goes as planned, the lawsuit challenging the Tennessee ballot access law for new and previously unqualified parties will be filed in federal court on December 21. The law is so restrictive, no third party has been qualified since 1972. Tennessee is one of only two states in which no party (other than the Democrats and Republicans) has been ballot-qualified in the last 25 years, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. The other such state is New Jersey (also, Georgia has only had qualified minor parties for statewide office, not district office).

This lawsuit should have been filed seven months ago, but the attorney who was going to do it became ill, and a new attorney had to be found.

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut did not file to be on the New York Democratic presidential primary. 5,000 signatures are required for Democrats in New York. The six Democrats who did file in New York are Biden, Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich, Obama and Richardson.

Six names will be on the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party’s presidential primary ballot in February: Jared Ball, Elaine Brown, Cynthia McKinney, Kent Mesplay, Ralph Nader, and Kat Swift.

Massachusetts doesn’t require candidates in presidential primaries to file; the law says the Secretary of State should place candidates on the ballot who are mentioned in the news media. In the case of minor parties, states with laws like this generally let the state party chair decide whom to list, and this list was approved by the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party’s leadership.