With Ron Paul on the ballot in Montana he is apparently receiving precisely the number of votes John McCain needs to tie Barack Obama in the state. That is if you believe the recent poll done by Montana State University-Billings.
If this year’s presidential election were being held today, for whom do you think you would vote?
Barack Obama 44.4%
John McCain 40.2%
Ron Paul 4.2%
Ralph Nader .7%
Bob Barr 1%
Undecided 9.5%
Of course, the undecideds are in third place, which means McCain could still come out on top if they pick McCain. It is telling that Ron Paul requested he be removed from the ballot in Montana too late for it to be done and he’s now running in third place amongst named candidates in the state.
According to AP, the Supreme Court refused to intervene in a lower court decision that disallowed Bob Barr to be on the Louisiana ballot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to intervene in a dispute between Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr and Louisiana over Barr’s bid to get on the state’s ballot.
The justices denied Barr’s request for help in a one-sentence order.
The Libertarians blamed Hurricane Gustav for making them miss the deadline to be included on Louisiana ballot.
Barr is on the ballot in 43 states, though court challenges could change that.
According to Ballot Access News, Barr is on the ballot in 45 states. I’m not sure where the AP is obtaining their numbers. This is yet another time and money consuming distraction from the real issues that the well funded two party duopoly never has to worry about.
Will there be a third party uprising before 2012? I could certainly get behind that.
It was hoped that among the hundreds of decisions the U.S. Supreme Count handed down today, one would have been in the case of the Libertarian Party v Dardenne (case# 08A269), in which the LP is fighting to get Bob Barr on the ballot in Louisiana. According to Ballot Access News:
All briefs on the injunctive relief matter had been submitted during the period between September 27 and October 2. The U.S. Supreme Court isn’t expected to hand down orders again until October 14, although the Court is free to hand down an individual order at any time.
On September 23, U.S. District Court Judge James Brady ruled that Bob Barr should be on the Louisiana ballot, but that co-plaintiff Brian Moore (Socialist Party nominee) should not be on. The case is Libertarian Party et al v Dardenne, 08-cv-582. The judge stayed his opinion for two days to give the state a chance to appeal to the 5th circuit.
Judge Brady differentiated between Barr and Moore by noting that the Libertarian Party is a ballot-qualified party, whereas the Socialist Party is not. He said the law gives a qualified party a three-day grace period, but that the law does not extend that to unqualified parties. The written decision is not available yet; the judge spoke orally. The written opinion should be available by 5 p.m. central time.
This is some good news for Barr after the not surprising failure of his lawsuit in Texas.
AUSTIN — The Texas Supreme Court has denied Libertarian presidential candidate’s Bob Barr attempt to keep the names John McCain and Barack Obama off the state’s November ballot.
The court did not explain the reason for its decision Tuesday.
Over at All American Blogger, the actual election law at the heart of the Bob Barr’s lawsuit is dissected. And in fact it’s pointed out that perhaps being filed by the deadline is not the only way to get on the ballot. There may be another way. See bold text below:
(a) To be entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the general election ballot, a political party required to make nominations by convention must file with the secretary of state, not later than the 75th day after the date of the precinct conventions held under this chapter, lists of precinct convention participants indicating that the number of participants equals at least one percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for governor in the most recent gubernatorial general election. The lists must include each participant’s residence address and voter registration number.
(b) A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the ballot, without qualifying under Subsection (a), in each subsequent general election following a general election in which the party had a nominee for a statewide office who received a number of votes equal to at least five percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for that office.
Blogger Andrew Min corresponded with Bob Barr’s press team, and a disagreement ensued. The above notwithstanding, I can’t imagine Bob Barr winning the case anyway.
Things are not looking good for McBama, which means that things ARE looking good for the people of the State of Texas and, potentially, for the entire United States.
“[His Campaign] filed suit Tuesday seeking to remove Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama from the ballot in Texas, alleging that the two major candidates missed the deadline for officially filing to be on the ballot. The lawsuit by the former Republican congressman from Georgia claims that neither McCain nor Obama met the requirement of Texas law that all candidates provide “written certification” of their nomination “before 5 p.m. on the 70th day before election day,” because neither had been formally nominated by their respective parties in time. That would have been Aug. 25. Obama did not accept his party’s nomination until Aug. 28, McCain his on Sept. 4. “
Best case scenario, this would lead to the complete removal of both “primary” candidates from the ballot in Texas. At the very least, however, it could certainly create some ethical controversies which could prompt many Republicans and Democrats to seriously question the soundness and validity of a National Party Convention.
My hat is off to you, Mr. Barr. Although you have received much criticism over the past week, I appreciate you both catching and acting on a critical piece of data which few, if any of us, even noticed. Good luck to you, sir!
“There appears to be a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications,” said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office. “And it appears to be widespread.”
Chesney said her office has had discussions with ACORN officials after local clerks reported the questionable applications to the state. Chesney said some of the applications are duplicates and some appear to be names that have been made up. The Secretary of State’s Office has turned over several of the applications to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Friday declined to confirm whether an investigation was taking place.
This is already going to be a very intense, very heated, and possibly very close election. I can only imagine what a few large-scale cases of voter fraud will add to the mix.
The Barr campaign notifies us that they have prevailed in the Pennsylvania ballot challenge case. McCain and his fellow Republicans attempted to have Barr removed from the ballot in PA. This makes a total of 44 state ballots where “Bob Barr” will appear.
On September 15, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth ruled against the challenge to Bob Barr’s substitution paperwork. The challenge had been filed by a Republican Party official in Cumberland County, and he had been represented by several attorneys, including one who regularly handles legal business for the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. The decision is seven pages.
The decision says, “In nominating Etzel prior to the Libertarian National Convention and substituting Barr thereafter, the Party and LPPa merely complied with the Party’s election process as it has been established in Pennsylvania since 1996 when, nationally, the Party moved its convention from a date prior to the legal date for circulation of Pennsylvania nomination papers to a subsequent date. Since then, given the time constraints, the Party and LPPa have deemed it necessary to circulate nomination papers prior to their national convention in order to take full and fair advantage of the time period allotted under Pennsylvania’s Election Code to secure the necessary signatures in support of their candidate…the Party simply took reasonable action to abide by the Election Code while furthering its legitimate interest.”
Given the recent missteps in West Virginia and choosing not to appear at Ron Paul’s press conference this is a breath of fresh air.
Although Ron flounders a little at the end there, he pretty much sums it up in a way that I think a lot of us have never fully considered: 16% of the country votes for one candidate, and the rest of us, the true majority, are all left feeling like “the minority”. Footage below, including what we can and need to do about it:
Liberty Maven
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