Third Party Watch

From Buzz Flash:

Blogger Ann Davidow clearly doesn’t think much of voting for third party candidates, and she goes out of her way to discredit just about every reason given for supporting them. Davidow portrays third party candidates and voters as outsiders who simply don’t want to decide between two major parties with significant differences.

Davidow [...]

Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney responds to why she left the Democratic Party, what motivates her to keep going in politics, how she plans to ‘inspire’ people with her presidency, whether she’s taking away black votes from Barack Obama, her positions on global conflicts, the potential for American military bases spread throughout Africa, and finally, [...]

Polls are certainly skewed towards the major party candidates, but when 3rd Party candidates are added to the mix, they’re tallying nearly one in five voters. The higher number of undecided voters at this stage in the race demonstrates the lack of comfort the voting public feels for McCain and Obama.

From World Net Daily:

An [...]

The Green Party is weighing in on the historic debate over the merits of the Electoral College by filing suit in a US District Court. The Party claims that electing a president via apportionment of state electors effectively disenfranchises tens of thousands of voters (especially black voters in southern states) and may lead to [...]

Ballot Access News

According to the West Virginia Secretary of State, petitions for Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr fell short. He turned in 13,036 of the 15,118 required by state law.

The Barr campaign website says a lawsuit will be filed on Tuesday and they will continue to collect signatures to exceed 20,000. The basis of the [...]

Janet Shan says on Black Political Thought, a blog for conservative blacks:

Ralph Nader is at it again…. According to ABC News, the Independent presidential candidate ripped Sen. Barack Obama saying that the presumptive Democratic nominee would not make the kind of African-American president that he and other members of the civil rights movement worked to [...]

A blogger for Green Party Watch admits that “when Cynthia McKinney first announced that Rosa Clemente was going to be her running mate, many greens (myself included) zipped over to The Google to find out just who the heck this woman was. What exactly is a hip hop activist?” He found out she was [...]

Hernando Today, a publication of the Tampa Tribune, continues reporting on the five persons who have filed as Green Party candidates for state legislature races, and who apparently are unknown to officials in the Green, Democratic, or Republican parties. As the publication notes:

Each is a potentially close match-up between the Republican and Democratic candidate. [...]

A new poll by Opinion Research Corporation, released by CNN, raises questions about the inclusion of third-party candidates in the polling question.

When respondents are given only two names, Barack Obama and John McCain, they choose Obama over McCain 51% to 44%—a 7-point spread.

When respondents are given five names—Obama, McCain, Ralph Nader, Bob Barr, and Cynthia [...]

Leave it to New Zealand Green Party blog frogblog (“hopping along the corridors of power”) to note this juxtaposition of billboards. The lingerie billboard message is: “It really is what’s underneath that counts”—and the Green Party billboard is underneath.

“Even the traffic light is approving,” says frogblog.

Al.com reports that the campaigns of Ralph Nader, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, and Cynthia McKinney all hope to make it onto the Alabama ballot. Valid signatures of 5,000 voters must be submitted by September 5.

The Nader campaign already has 5,000 signatures, but continues to circulate petitions and plans to turn in 9,000 names as [...]

The Washington Post reports on a protest at its own office by members of the D.C. Statehood Green Party:

“We’re here to challenge the Post to cover D.C.’s second party in terms of national clout,” said David Schwartzman, an at-large candidate for the D.C. Council. He highlighted the party’s 2006 general election results, in which the [...]

Click here for Ballot Access News’s chart, “2008 Petitioning for President.” It gives, state by state, the number of petitions required to be on the presidential ballot, the deadlines, and the status of the Libertarian, Green, and Constitution parties, as well as the independent Nader campaign. Other third parties are found at the [...]

Ballot Access News

Both Pennsylvania and West Virginia require minor party and independent presidential petitions to be submitted on August 1. In both states, one or another minor party is struggling with that deadline.

The Pennsylvania deadline seems very vulnerable to challenge. The legislature has never passed any law saying the deadline is August 1. Instead, in [...]

Ballot Access News

The West Virginia Constitution Party submitted 20,610 signatures to be on the 2008 ballot for president. Some of them had been turned in previously and have an 80% validity rate. Unfortunately the petition only counts for president. In order to count for Governor, all the signatures would have been due in May. So [...]

You read that right. Glenn Beck, who is on CNN Headline News and also hosts a conservative national radio talk show, says:

Well, don’t forget former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, whose Green Party candidacy I fully and unequivocally support…

Of course, those are 3 very big elipses, and you have to go here for “the rest of [...]

Members of the local Green Party have sued San Juan County, Washington, alleging that the use of bar codes puts ballot secrecy at risk and violates state law. The Revised Code of Washington 29A.36.111 states, “No paper ballot or ballot card may be marked in any way that would permit the identification of the person [...]

Here is a list of 18 Green Party candidates for federal and state offices in Michigan. This list does not yet include candidates who will be nominated for seats in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties at caucuses on Saturday, August 2.

The following is a media release from the Green Party:

Greens urge quick action on Ohio, Pennsylvania election crimes, seek assurance of 2008 ballot access fairness and election integrity

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Pennsylvania: 12 indicted after Statehouse Democrats [...]

The Green Party has a history of supporting progressive environmental policies, says Kenneth Waltzer, a professor at Michigan State University. But because “green issues” are now gaining attention in mainstream politics, he says, green-conscious voters have no reason to vote for a Green Party candidate.

The State News reports that state Green Party spokesperson [...]

The following is a media release from Rodger Jennings, Green Party candidate for Congress from Illinois:

Contact: Phone 618-593-8729
Citizens for Rodger Jennings
Press Release

School District Refuses to Register Students
Green Party supports the restructuring Educational Laws

Alton, IL, July 28, 2008 – Rodger Jennings , US Candidate for US Congress in District 12 was approached today by a concerned [...]

Columnist Dick Yarbrough brags tongue-in-cheek in the Athens Banner-Herald:

Are we Georgians privileged or what? Here we sit in the greatest state in the union with its majestic mountains, beautiful beaches, the oldest state-chartered university in the nation located in Athens, the Classic City of the South, sweet Vidalia onions and more barbecue than we can [...]

The following is a media release from the Rodger Jennings for Congress campaign:

On Saturday August 2 there will be a Fund Raiser for Rodger Jennings for US Congress in Alton, Illinois. The event will be held at the Holiday Inn in Alton, Illinois. Social gathering starts at 6 pm with dinner served at 6:30. [...]

Green Party Watch writes:

It was reported a few weeks back about five Green Party candidates for State Legislature in Florida, each of whom filed to run at the last minute, each of whom had changed their party registration to Green very recently, each of whom is running in a close race, and each of whom [...]

Regarding the five mysterious Green Party candidates in Florida, some people have suspected that this is a plot by the Republican Party to divide the Democratic vote. I doubt it, because there are so many better ways to help achieve that goal with the nearly $10,000 in filing fees, but who knows?

On June 26, [...]