The Bush campaign missed the deadline required to get on the Ballot in Florida.

Steve Bousquest of The St Petersburg Times writes

"State law sets a Sept. 1 deadline for the governor to certify a list of presidential electors for each party's candidates.

But Sept. 1 was also the day President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were being nominated at their party' convention in New York. Consequently, some of their paperwork did not arrive at state elections headquarters until Sept. 2, a day after Gov. Jeb Bush certified the candidates for president.

Paperwork problem?

No, says Secretary of State Glenda Hood's office.

Spokeswoman Jenny Nash said Friday the law is clear: The deadline applies to the governor and the list of presidential electors, not to the candidates themselves. The list of Republican electors released by Hood's office does not show a time stamp indicating when the document was received by the state."

So the only date on any document is September 2nd, one day too late. However " Democrats said they aren't so sure, but they won't challenge the Bush campaign's papers."

Michael Froomkin asks if the Florida Democratic Party has a death wish.

"Florida Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox said he knew the president’s certificate of nomination did not reach the state until Sept. 2, but he said he decided not to make an issue of it."

hmm how to spin this one ? Robert Maddox would have sued and said (following advice of council Michael Froomkin).

"We are filing this suit for three reasons. First we wish to bring attention to the total incompetence of the Bush team. Many people think they may have trouble running the country but they are brilliant at handling politics. The fact is that they are just totally incapable of doing anything right. Second we feel that it is important to draw attention to the total hypocricy of the Republicans. In 2000 they argued that deadlines were absolutely important, more important than finding out who Floridians wanted to be elected President (as required by Florida state law). Now they don't care at all. A filing on September 2nd is fine. Secretary of State Glenda Hood's office argues that the important date is the date of filing of the list of presidential electors, but for some reason they didn't record when that list arrived at their office. I don't think anyone has any trouble guessing what that reason is. I, for one, assume the list arrived on September 2nd. Otherwise, why didn't they stamp the date. This brings me to the fundamental reason we are filing this suit. The Republicans who control the Florida State Goverment are using their office to help President Bush by any means legal or illegal. They attempted to keep their false felon list secret, then when it was proven invalid the instant it became public said it was a mistake. They sent armed police officers to intimidate senior citizens who are trying to convince their neighbors to vote. American Democracy is too important to entrust it to people who, time and again, demonstrate that they only care about winning by any means necessary.

The letter of the law implies that the name "George Bush" should not appear on the ballot. However, we are willing to accept any resulution, provided that Republican Politicians are prevented from breaking the rules again.

The idea is to publically offer to settle out of court in exchange for non-partisan scrutiny of further actions by the office of the Secretary of State. The Republicans would probably refuse and so they would be the ones making a mess and discussing under oath why no date was stamped on the list of Republican electors released by their office.