As Last Free Voice points out: at this moment, Ralph Nader is appearing on more ballots nationwide than Bob Barr. Let's see, we've got former Congressman Barr, that fireball wizard of intellectual Wayne Allyn Root, masterminds Russ Verney, Shane Cory, and Steve Gordon, along with the LNC and party organizations in almost every State. Nader has, well, his name-recognition. Once again, it's obviously Angela Keaton's fault.

The filing deadline to certify a Presidential candidate on the November ballot in Texas was August 25, 2008. The Democratic Party, according to the copies obtained under a FOIA request by the Bob Barr campaign , sent in its filing materials on August 27 , following an email on August 26 . The Republican Party sent in a letter dated August 26 , and a second letter on August 29 claiming in essence that their original letter had been sent in before the August 25 deadline: This filing is meant to amend our previous filing under this section which was timely filed on August 25, 2008. In the event you or a court of competent jurisdiction deem this amendment to be untimely, I intend that the previous filing be effective. The problem, of course, is that there was no August 25 filing. Or was there? There are two copies of the same August 26 filing referenced above in the Texas Secretary of State's files. Both bear handwritten annotations. On August 26 filing (1), the note says: Received...

Not content with trying to talk Libertarians off the ballot in Texas, or suing to get them off in Pennsylvania, prominent Idaho GOPers including Representative Bill Salli are trying to convince all third-party candidates to drop out in the Idaho Senatorial race. From Independent Political Report : Three alternative candidates for the U.S. Senate in Idaho “were contacted by Republicans including Congressman Bill Sali, urging them to exit the race to help Republican Jim Risch,” the AP reports. Libertarian Kent Marmon, independent Rex Rammell, and independent Pro-Life (formerly Marvin Richardson) “all say they were asked to make an early exit.” Marmon said Sali “urged him to leave because he could draw votes from Risch” and help Democrat Larry LaRocco. A Sali spokesman confirmed the reports, saying the calls were “political, nothing personal.” LaRocco “says the GOP ‘power elite’ is trying to manipulate the Nov. 4 election.” Yeah, nothing personal, just don't interfere with our God-giv...

You'll probably never hear this one in the MSM, what with Bill trying hard not to spit every time he says Barack's name, but.... It appears there is a legal case to be made that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama should be on the ballot in Texas come November 4 . Apparently, Texas changed its law a couple years back to require names to be submitted to the Secretary of State not 60 days before the election, but 70 days . And there is some uncertainty as to whether the GOPers and Dems even submitted placeholder petitions, with the intent to substitute actual names after their conventions. [They could easily have submitted Obama and McCain as the main candidates, but the law requires VPs as well.] I suspect that either (a) we will discover retroactively that they filed something; or (b) a carefully purchased Texas judge will simply set aside the law ala Frank Lautenberg's illegal replacement of Bob Toricelli a few years ago in New Jersey; or (c) at the very worst they'l...

I'm sure that Ryan McTeague Beckwith of the Raleigh News and Observer thought this was funny: The number of registered Libertarians has more than doubled. But don't get too excited — it's only gone from 5 to 11. As recently as Monday, the State Board of Elections reported only a handful of people registered to the political party, which was only re-recognized in late May. Deputy elections director Johnnie Mclean said that the state board only recently got the forms together to allow people to re-register, so it will take a while before the party bounces back. No word yet on whether Mike Munger is one of the 11. And I'm positive that Dr Michael Munger, the Libertarian candidate for North Carolina governor is pissed : 1. Even though we spent $200,000, plus all those volunteer hours, the state does not yet have the forms to register. I just downloaded the forms the Wake County BoE, and even their ELECTRONIC forms are not yet changed. How long does it take to upload a ...

Two weeks ago I posted an update on the North Carolina Bar Association's decision to exclude Dr Michael Munger, the ballot-qualified Libertarian Party candidate for Governor, from their June 21 debate. This included the response made by NCBA Executive Director Allan Head to an inquiry by NC attorney, Lenoir City Council Member, and Libertarian T. J. Rohr regarding the NCBA's decision not to invite Dr. Munger: Mr. Head : With regard to the annual meeting, 10 months ago we invited all announced candidates, Those coming accepted our invitation. I believe Dr Munger did not qualify until May 22nd. By that time we had confirmed the other candidates and firmed up times for our convention Saturday morning that is full of award recognitions, elections, a Judicial candidate’s forum, as well as gubernatorial and senatorial forums. We could not add another award or candidate if we wanted to. So, I hope that speaks to your concerns about the forum. We did not decide “…..not to include hi...

Mr. Allan Head, Executive Director of the NCBA, has not responded to any of my inquires regarding his organization's decision to exclude Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Dr Michael Munger from its upcoming debate this Saturday. Mr. Head, however, apparently felt constrained to answer NC attorney, Lenoir NC city council member, and Libertarian T. J. Rohr, when he asked much the same question. The entire exchange is reprinted at the Munger Campaign blog , but here's a taste: Mr. Head: With regard to the annual meeting, 10 months ago we invited all announced candidates, Those coming accepted our invitation. I believe Dr Munger did not qualify until May 22nd. By that time we had confirmed the other candidates and firmed up times for our convention Saturday morning that is full of award recognitions, elections, a Judicial candidate’s forum, as well as gubernatorial and senatorial forums. We could not add another award or candidate if we wanted to. So, I hope that speaks to your...

Ironically, the very toughest ballot access provisions exist in Oklahoma, and even the Libertarian Party may not be able to meet those requirements in time to get Bob Barr on the ballot. Moreover, the Sooners don't even allow write-ins. Which is doubly unfortunate given that Oklahoma--as evidenced in Delaware Curmudgeon's recent post -- has just served notice to the Feds that under the authority of the Tenth Amendment THAT the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States. THAT this serves as Notice and Demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers. THAT a copy of this resolution be distributed to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate...

I have never seriously considered voting for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, but you have to love the song-and-dance any legitimate third-party candidate has to perform to get on the ballot in some states. This from Third Party Watch: The Kansas Reform Party is ballot-qualified. At its recent state convention, the sentiment was strong for nominating Chuck Baldwin for president. Some kinks remain to be worked out, however. The Kansas Secretary of State seems to feel that a state ballot-qualified party cannot nominate the presidential candidate of another nationally-organized political party (even though that nationally-organized party is not on the ballot in Kansas) . Clarification is being sought. Chuck Baldwin, of course, is the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate; he was nominated at the national convention in April 2008. You see, the problem is one of numerology. Two (as in two parties) is both an even number and a prime number. In fact it is the only even number ...

Oh, I know that ultimately either Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama will be elected President this November. But this year is shaping up as an almost tectonic shift in American electoral politics, as early polls already give third party candidates as much as 8% of the total vote. Pulling support away from Obama: Ralph Nader --running this year as an unaffiliated independent and polling as high as 8% in some key states. Cynthia McKinney --already the presumptive nominee of the Green Party. Former Congresswoman McKinney is (to my mind, anyway) something of a nutcase. But she's the most-recognized figure the Greens have ever run (except Nader himself), and she is directly going after the African-American vote. Check out her most recent endorsement by editor Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report (h/t Independent Political Report ): Two candidates with almost identical positions on virtually every issue fight to exhaustion over non-substantial concerns for months, and will ...

Strict originalist interpreters of the US Constitution will note that the mechanics of voting in local, state, and Federal elections are left up to the States to decide. These have, of course, been modified through amendment (15th [race], 19th [Gender], 24th [Poll taxes], 26th [18 year-old vote]), legislation ( Voting Rights Act of 1965 ), or judicial decision ( NC Libertarian and Green Parties v. State of North Carolina, 2008 ), so it's not as if such issues were untouchable. In Delaware, since 2002, the number of political party changes away from the Democratic or Republican parties to "independent" or "minor" political parties has always rivaled if not exceeded the number of people joining the Democratic Party, which is traditionally listed as the big winner in voter registration . But in the First State, and nationwide, attempting to gain ballot access for any party besides the Republicans or Democrats has of course been vigorously squashed by the two maj...

In a bizarre series of arguments, brought to us by Third Party Watch , the State of North Carolina has responded to the combined Green Party-Libertarian Party attempt to relax ballot access rules in the Tarheel State. The state argued that lowering the bar on ballot access requirements would invite rogue parties to run, thus cluttering the ballot and confusing voters. Nonetheless, from 1929 to 1981, parties had to collect just 10,000 signatures; in one election cycle, the limit was reduced to 5,000. Only in the early ‘80s, when the Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party appeared on the ballot, did the state legislature pass a law upping the requirements. Damn those Communist and Socialist rogues for daring to suggest they might have--oh, let me see--a First Amendment right to free speech and political organization.... Ironically, the judge personally agreed with the Greens/Libertarians that the 2% ballot access number is unnecessarily restrictive: Last week, Superior Court Jud...