On September 4, the Constitution Party submitted 2,700 signatures to place its nominee, Kevin Thompson, on the November 2007 ballot to fill the vacant Massachusetts 5th district. 2,000 valid signatures are required, so Thompson is likely to qualify. If so, he will be the first minor party candidate on the ballot in Massachusetts for U.S. House since 2002.

The Democratic and Republican Party nominees are being chosen in a special primary on September 4. Although the Green and Working Families Parties are also ballot-qualified, no one is running in their primaries for that office.

The District of Columbia held a presidential primary in 2004 on January 13. Since that was even before the New Hampshire presidential primary, it should have got attention. But, because it was so early, the D.C. Republican Party refused to participate at all, and some of the leading Democrats refused to run in that primary. Howard Dean won the primary, but he got little boost from that victory since John Edwards and John Kerry weren’t on that ballot.

On July 25, the D.C. council passed Act 1788, which moves the presidential primary to the second Tuesday in February. The law won’t go into effect until Congress has a chance to veto it. It is extremely likely that Congress will permit Act 1788 to go into law, but that won’t be final until early October 2007.

D.C. has three qualified parties: Democratic, Republican and Green.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on HR 811 on Thursday, September 6. The bill requires states to use vote-counting equipment (in federal elections) that creates a paper trail.