Michigan requires petitions signed by one-half of 1% of either major party’s last presidential vote, for a candidate to qualify for the January 15 presidential primaries. The due date was October 23, 2007. Of course, this procedure only applies to Democratic and Republican presidential candidates who were not automatically placed on the ballots by Democratic and Republican party leaders.

Two groups had announced that they were petitioning: Alan Keyes had said he would gather the needed 11,569 signatures to get on the Republican presidential primary ballot, and a Draft Al Gore group had said it would gather the needed 12,396 signatures to place Gore on the Democratic ballot. However, neither group succeeded. The Gore group only obtained 3,000 signatures. It is not known how many Keyes collected.

Only three presidential candidates have applied to the Federal Election Commission to receive primary season matching funds, as of October 23. They are John Edwards, John McCain and Tom Tancredo. The FEC has already certified eligibility for McCain and Tancredo, and is still looking at Edwards’ submission. Although primary season funds won’t be paid until January of the election year (at the earliest), candidates are free to establish eligibility in the odd year before the election year. Any candidate seeking the nomination of any party (no matter how small that party is) may qualify by raising $5,000 from each of 20 states. Contributions from any single donor, no matter how large, cannot count as greater than $250 for this purpose.

On October 22, Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert said that if he is returned to power at the provincial election on November 7, his government will initiative a Citizens Assembly to examine proportional representation. He also said, if the Citizens Assembly then recommends proportional representation and the matter is submitted to the voters, that the government will fund efforts to educate the voters about the proposal. Calvert is the leader of the New Democratic Party, which now controls the Saskatchewan government. This month’s vote in Ontario Province on the same type of proposal was marred because a large proportion of the Ontario voters received no information about the proposal, prior to the election. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this.