After a court ruling last year struck down New Hampshire's old alphabetical ballot, the state now must kick off its ballot with a randomly-selected letter.

For the presidential primary, the randomly selected letter was Z, according to Secretary of State Bill Gardner.

That means that the ballot will begin at the beginning. Joe Biden gets top space among the Democrats. Among the Republicans, lesser-known candidate Hugh Cort will do the honors, Gardner said.

The absentee ballots bound overseas have already been printed up and will be ready at town and city clerks' offices this week, Gardner said.

One down

One candidate has been struck from the ballot. Sal Mohamed, who was born in Egypt and lives in Iowa, isn't a natural-born U.S. citizen, Gardner said, and so doesn't meet the qualifications to run.

"He had sent that he was physically born in Egypt but his soul was born in America," Gardner said.

Gardner said he didn't have to debate with Mohamed about the metaphysics of soul birth. "We actually talked to him and he acknowledged that he was not qualified," Gardner said.

That leaves 43 presidential candidates and three vice-presidential candidates in all running in New Hampshire's primary.

A real run

The rumblings from high-profile Jeanne Shaheen supporters when she announced her Senate race in September were that with so many of the best operatives immersed in primary politicking, a real campaign team wouldn't shape up until the winter.

We guess not.

Monday, the Shaheen campaign announced that it had snagged a campaign manager directly from the John Edwards campaign. Bill Hyers, who had been the Edwards's campaign state director in Nevada, is a veteran of the unlikely Democratic victory of Kristen Gillibrand in upstate New York in 2006 and a similarly unexpected clincher by Michael Nutter in Philadelphia's Democratic mayoral primary in June.

There are pundits who make it sound like Shaheen already has the thing in the bag, but Hyers's hire may be a sign that Shaheen's camp expecting more of an upstart race.

"Bill understands the kind of personal, grassroots campaign that I want to run," Shaheen said in a statement. "He brings a great deal of experience, a successful track record and a true commitment to grassroots democracy. He will work to engage people all over the state in this campaign."

Paul-itics

And the prize for the largest one-day online fundraising haul goes to . . . Ron Paul?

The libertarian Texan raised more than $3.1 million in 19 hours Monday, with contributions from about 25,000 supporters - as of 4 p.m., he had broken the single-day online primary fundraising record, according to his campaign. Paul also managed to outdo Mitt Romney.

Paul's money-making success was partly rooted in Monday's date: Nov. 5, the anniversary of Guy Fawkes day, according to the New York Times. A group of Paul supporters created a website ThisNovember5th.com, a nod to the day that Fawkes tried to assassinate England's King James I by blowing up Parliament in 1605. "Many fans of Mr. Paul know of the day primarily through a move based on the futuristic graphic novel V for Vendetta . . . in which a terrorist modeled after Fawkes battles a fascist government that has taken over Britain," according to the New York Times.

And that $3.1 million figure listed on the Paul website? Old news, the Times reported. Paul raised nearly $4.1 million.

More phone jamming

The New Hampshire Democratic Party wasn't about to let the fifth anniversary of the Republican phone-jamming scandal pass quietly.

Party Chairman Raymond Buckley, former party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan and attorney Paul Twomey, who represented the party in the case, joined together for a conference call with reporters, during which they stressed the still "unanswered questions" about the case. (next page »)