Woodbury County (Iowa) Auditor Pat Gill says that the county will hold a presidential primary at the county fair, August 1-5, 2007. Mr. Gill is not available for questions on July 18. The obvious question for him (which no one else in that office can answer) is how the county will decide which candidates to list on the ballots. It is hoped he will be available on July 19 to answer this question. The state of Iowa has never held a presidential primary, so obviously nothing in the state election code can deal with this question. UPDATE: Woodbury County will list the 8 Democrats who have participated in debates this year, and the 10 Republicans who have participated in debates this year, on its presidential primary ballots. Also, for the Republican ballot, the county will include Fred Thompson, and will probably delete Jim Gilmore.

The 9th circuit is likely to hear Nader v Brewer in October 2007. This is the case over whether Arizona’s early June petition deadline is too early for independent presidential candidates, and whether it is unconstitutional for a state to ban out-of-state petitioners for independent presidential candidates.

Other 2004 Nader ballot access cases that are still pending are in Ohio (over whether the state may require circulators to be registered voters), and in Hawaii (over whether the state’s petition-checking procedures violate due process, and also over whether it is constitutional for a state to require 6 times as many signatures for an independent presidential candidate as for an entire new party).

On July 17, both Gallup and Zogby released polls for the major party presidential primary contests.

Republican results: Gallup reported Giuliani 33%, Fred Thompson 21%, McCain 16%, Romney 8%, Paul 3%, Huckabee 2%, Brownback 2%, Tommy Thompson 1%, Duncan Hunter 1%, 12% other or no opinion.

Zogby reported Fred Thompson 22%, Giuliani 21%, Romney 11%, McCain 9%, Huckabee 5%, Brownback 2%, Paul 1%, Hunter 1%, other or no opinion 27%.

Democratic results: Gallup reported Clinton 40%, Obama 28%, Edwards 13%, Richardson 5%, Biden 3%, Kucinich 1%, Dodd 1%, other or no opinion 8%.

Zogby reported Clinton 37%, Obama 25%, Edwards 11%, Richardson 3%, Kucinich 2%, Biden 1%, other or no opinion 20%.