New York Democratic presidential primary candidates need 5,000 signatures to be on that ballot. December 6 was the deadline, but the signatures can be mailed and postmarked on that day, so the list may not be final.

Already filed are petitions for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson. Possibly in the mail are a Chris Dodd petition and a Mike Gravel petition. Hillary Clinton seemed to file the most signatures, approximately 62,000.

Republicans in New York’s presidential primary are listed automatically if they are discussed in the major news media, or if they qualify for primary season matching funds. None of New York’s three other ballot-qualified parties are holding a presidential primary.

The deadline for presidential candidates to file in the Illinois Green Party, and the Illinois Democratic Party, had been in early November. Challenges to the petitions of all Green and all Democratic presidential candidates had been filed. However, all challenges to both sets of candidates were found baseless, and were dismissed, on December 6.

The four Greens running in the Illinois presidential primary are Cynthia McKinney, Jared Ball, Kent Mesplay, and Howie Hawkins.

The Illinois Green presidential primary is only the 3rd minor party presidential primary in that state since the 1920’s. The other two were the Illinois Solidarity presidential primary in 1988 (won by Lenora Fulani), and the Libertarian presidential primary in 1996 (won by Harry Browne).

As noted below, Florida Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson lost his lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee on December 5, on the issue of Florida voters having no representation in the process by which the Democratic Party chooses its presidential nominee. Senator Nelson said late on December 5 that he will not appeal.

This development gives new importance to the lawsuit filed by some Florida Democrats against the Secretary of State, alleging that the Florida law setting the presidential primary date in January violates the Florida and U.S. Constitutions. That case was filed on November 20. The attorney for the plaintiffs has asked the Leon County Circuit Court for a hearing date, to consider his motion for injunctive relief. The case is Ausman v Browning, 2007-ca-3233.