On April 26, qualifying closed for Georgia’s special congressional election in the 10th district, set for June. As expected, Dr. Jim Sendelbach, a Libertarian, qualified, since no petition is required in special elections (just a filing fee). Also qualifying were 6 Republicans and 3 Democrats. The party labels will be next to each candidate’s name on the ballot.

This will be the first U.S. House election in Georgia with a third party candidate on the ballot, with a party label, since 1942. Starting in 1943, Georgia began requiring a 5% petition for minor party and independent candidates, except in special elections. And in special elections, until very recently, party labels weren’t printed on ballots.

The New York Times article of April 26 lists all ten candidates by name and party affiliation. It is somewhat unusual for that newspaper to mention minor party candidates for Congress.

The first televised debate for Democrats seeking the presidency will be held on the evening of April 26, at South Carolina State University. Eight candidates will participate. Their names, followed by their showings in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken April 20-23, are below:

Hillary Clinton 36%, Barack Obama 31%, John Edwards 20%, Joe Biden 3%, Bill Richardson 2%, Dennis Kucinich 1%, Chris Dodd 0%, Mike Gravel 0%.

For general election presidential debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates applies a 15% polling standard. If that standard were applied to the April 26 Democratic debate, the field would be trimmed from 8 candidates to 3.

On April 19, U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis, a Bush Jr. appointee, ordered that a candidate for city council be placed on the ballot in a special election, even though that candidate, Wellington Sharpe, had not completed the mandatory petition. The election was a special election, and the law required all candidates to submit 1,002 valid signatures in just 13 days. The case is Sharpe v Como, 07-cv-1521, eastern district.

The basis for the decision was that Sharpe’s main opponent in the April 24 special election, Mathieu Eugene, had advance knowledge of the special election, whereas his opponents did not. Therefore, Eugene had the benefit of all 13 days to collect signatures, but Sharpe did not. Furthermore, during the 9 days available to Sharpe, the weather was very bad. The key element in the decision is the judge’s conclusion that denying a candidate a spot on the ballot is an “injury of great magnitude.” Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.