Third Party Watch

Ballot Access News

The Texas Secretary of State has corrected some clerical errors that had crept into the official November 2008 presidential returns, for the declared write-in candidates.

As a result, Chuck Baldwin gained 343 votes, Ralph Nader gained 226 votes, Cynthia McKinney gained 160 votes, and Jonathan Allan gained one vote.

Also, Brian Moore lost 778 votes, [...]

Ballot Access News

In 2004, Constitution Party presidential nominee Michael Peroutka was on the ballot in states containing 66.4% of the national presidential vote. Where he was on the ballot, he polled .173% of the total presidential vote in those places.

In 2008, Constitution Party presidential nominee Chuck Baldwin was on the ballot in states containing 59.0% [...]

The Houston Chronicle’s Texas on the Potomac blog gives the vote totals for Indiana, North Carolina, and Missouri. It is obvious that Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr and Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader got enough votes to make the difference in those three states between the two major-party candidates. (Constitution Party presidential [...]

Chuck Baldwin, the 2008 Constitution Party candidate for President, says there is only one way to get the change that President-elect Obama promised in his campaign:

There will be no real change in Washington, D.C., until the CFR [Council on Foreign Relations] and their elitist cronies are thoroughly and universally removed from power. And the [...]

This is how Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate this year, sees the election results:

For all intents and purposes, conservatism—as a national movement—is completely and thoroughly dead. Barack Obama did not destroy it, however. It was George W. Bush and John McCain who destroyed conservatism in America.

Moreover,

...the greatest tragedy of this deception is [...]

It happens every election cycle. Some libertarian writes about how the Libertarian Party should be abolished (or at least no longer run candidates). The latest comes from Ilya Somin, who writes:

Libertarians often emphasize that failed enterprises should be liquidated rather than kept going on artificial life support. That enables their resources to be [...]

Ballot Access News

Former Indiana Congressman John Hostettler will speak to the Constitution Party’s national committee meeting in Orlando, Florida, on December 12-13. Hostettler, a Republican who served 1994-2006, also has revealed that he cast a write-in vote for the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, this year.
Hostettler has recently published a book, ‘Nothing for the [...]

Well, he did tell us what President-elect Obama’s administration would be like. So he may not be a spoiler this year, just a prophet. Here’s Ralph Nader’s post-election, in-the-midst-of-the-transition analysis of the incoming administration:

While the liberal intelligentsia was swooning over Barack Obama during his presidential campaign, I counseled “prepare to be disappointed.” His [...]

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader discusses his presidency in this video of his appearance on the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

The following is a statement by Green Party officials and functionaries:

Greens to Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente: Thank you

Dear Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, Lucy Grider-Bradley, John Judge and the 2008 Power to the People Campaign…

We are delegates and alternates of the Green National Committee of the Green Party of the United States as well as [...]

The following is a statement by James N. Clymer, National Chairman of the Constitution Party:

The Constitution Party Makes Inroads

by James N. Clymer
Constitution Party National Chairman

Or… There’s More Than One Way To Skin A Career Politician!

Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin and his running mate Darrell Castle wound up with close to 179,000 votes, showing [...]

The Washington Post’s Reliable Source blog has some fun with Ralph Nader for suggesting that third-party candidates should be invited to President Obama’s inauguration:

The sometimes cantankerous outsider has sent an open letter to Barack Obama asking that third-party candidates—the Libertarian Party’s Bob Barr, the Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin and the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney—be included [...]

Ballot Access News

From preliminary election returns, it appears that these are the best counties for five particular presidential candidates:

Nader: Morgan County, Tennessee 5.2%
Barr: Esmeralda County, Nevada, 2.7%
Baldwin: Millard County, Utah, 5.6%
McKinney: either St. Bernard or LaFourche Parish, both in Louisiana, each 1.1%
Brian Moore: Essex County, Vermont, 2.1%

Thanks to Jack Ross for doing the laborious job [...]

David Weigel of Reason takes a look at the votes for Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, and Cynthia McKinney, all of which were disappointing to their backers and in historical context. He then concludes:

So if you add together Paul with the four candidates he gathered at the National Press Club to endorse (and [...]

Ballot Access News reports that independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader “did not seek the nomination of any nationally-organized party. But he did seek out the nomination of various parties that are just organized in one state. Also, in a few states, for pragmatic ballot-access purposes, he created new one-state parties.”

It continues:

In eight states, parties that [...]

The following message is from the Ralph Nader presidential campaign site:

Hold Your Heads Up High

Posted by The Nader Team on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 12:56:00 PM

Hold Your Heads Up High .

Against all odds.

We prevailed.

On $4 million total — what Obama raised in one day.

Nader/Gonzalez overcame ballot access obstacles.

We put our shift the power agenda [...]

The following message is from the Chuck Baldwin presidential campaign site:

Post-Election Message

by Chuck Baldwin
Constitution Party 2008 Presidential Candidate

Friends ,

The results of the presidential election come as no surprise.

While we all will struggle with the choice Americans have made, we will in no way hang our heads in defeat. The progressive development of our 16 year [...]

In three states—Missouri, Indiana, and North Carolina—the victor in the presidential race did not get 50% of the vote. And the vote for third-party candidates conceivably may have altered the outcome.

The problem is trying to determine the mindset of the voters who took the third-party route, an impossible task. Would they have voted [...]

With about half of today’s projected 140M votes counted, independent Ralph Nader has about 350K votes and Libertarian Bob Barr has 300K. If this pace holds, Barr would finish with a disappointing 600K (barely over 0.4%), and Nader would get a surprisingly low 700K. Both were polling at 1% on election eve.

Thanks to Bradley Jansen for providing this cheat-sheet service on Nolan Chart. He lists 14 “likely battleground states with information of the main third party candidates on the ballot and their history of support in the state (and how they may affect the electoral outcomes).”

Now if we could get only one of the mainstream [...]

Mother Jones doesn’t pretend to be an “objective” magazine, so don’t expect anything but sneers in this article focusing on Howard Phillips, the power-broker of the Constitution Party. But don’t let that scare you away from reading this article, because there’s a lot of interesting speculation mixed up with the leftist conspiracy-mongering. For [...]

... but it’s as close as we can get until Intrade has more granularity and liquidity in its prediction markets for third-party results. Intrade is giving Libertarian Bob Barr a 28% chance of winning more than 1% of the vote, but only an 8% chance of winning more than 2%. Its numbers for Nader [...]

Ballot Access News

On November 1, a Deseret News/KSL-TV presidential poll was released. It is based on 1,205 voters, sampled between October 24 and October 30. Results: McCain 57%, Obama 32%, Baldwin 2%, Barr 1%, Nader 1%, undecided or refused 7%. Thanks to Frank Fluckiger for this news.

In 2004, the presidential vote in Utah had been: [...]

This from Steven Moyer:

Remember that the founders of the nation wanted us to have at least FIVE viable candidates.

From Article II of the Constitution:

“if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President.”

According to Ballot Access News:

Barack Obama has the top spot on the ballot in 15 states and the District of Columbia. John McCain has the top spot on the ballot in 14 states. Chuck Baldwin has the top spot in 6 states. Ralph Nader has the top spot in one state. Cynthia McKinney has the [...]