US Features

Winning votes is only the last hurdle for US minor parties

Oct 28, 2008, 14:58 GMT

Washington - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain could have been left off the presidential ballot in Texas, where state law required parties to deliver written certification of their nominees by 70 days before the November 4 elections. US Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama greeets supporters before delivering a speech to a crowd of about 5,000 at the Canton Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio, USA, 27 October 2008. Life is not so easy for candidates outside of the big two parties, with many US states imposing very high hurdles on entry to the ballot. EPA/DAVID MAXWELL

US Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama greeets supporters before delivering a speech to a crowd of about 5,000 at the Canton Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio, USA, 27 October 2008. Life is not so easy for candidates outside of the big two parties, with many US states imposing very high hurdles on entry to the ballot. EPA/DAVID MAXWELLWith unusually late conventions this year, both major-party candidates accepted their nominations only days after Texas' August 26 deadline. The presidential campaign of candidate Bob Barr, nominee of the Libertarian Party, filed suit to force state officials to remove McCain and Obama from the Texas ballot. The Texas Supreme Court quickly denied Barr's motion without explanation. 'Third parties are never given second chances when it comes to getting on the ballot,' said Russell Verney, Barr's campaign manager. 'And third parties are often thrown off the ballot for the most minor infractions of ballot access laws. In Texas, we have a clear deadline that was not met by the Republicans and Democrats.' Barr, who will be on ballots as the candidate of the free-market, social liberal third party in 45 of the 50 states, himself missed filing deadlines in four other states. 'When the major parties break the law, they're forgiven,' said Richard Winger, an expert on US election laws and activist for easing ballot access to third parties and independent candidates. 'The double standard is just crushingly obvious this year.' The United States and Switzerland are the only democracies without centralized election processes. US federalism produces a crazy quilt of election laws, with each state imposing its own rules and requirements. 'The worst state' for third party presidential candidates is Oklahoma, where only Obama and McCain will be on the ballot, said Winger, who often assists candidates in lawsuits to press for better ballot access. Tough requirements for campaigns to collect voter signatures, early filing deadlines and sometimes steep fees heavily deter candidates outside the major parties. But in most states, Republican and Democratic nominees automatically qualify for the ballot on the basis of their parties' performance in recent elections. This year in Maine, an independent US Senate candidate met the state deadline to turn in 4,000 signatures, but town clerks statewide were unable to check all the signatures on her petitions in time. In court, a judge struck the candidate from the ballot, ruling that she should have anticipated the bureaucracy's needs and filed her signatures before the deadline. The justification for most ballot barriers, such as high signature requirements and early filing dates, is to prevent ballot crowding. 'And yet that doesn't happen in Canada and Great Britain,' Winger said. 'Both ... have scrupulously equal ballot access laws.' In those countries, candidates face the same modest fee and signature requirements, whether from major parties, small parties or independents. In 1992, billionaire Ross Perot mounted an independent US presidential campaign at his own expense, briefly ranking first in opinion polls and eventually winning 19 per cent of the vote, making him the strongest third-party presidential candidate in 80 years. Anti-corporate activist Ralph Nader, running on the new Green Party ticket in 2000, won 2.74 per cent of the popular vote and was blamed by many Democrats for throwing a razor-thin victory to Republican George W Bush. Nader, a left-wing consumer advocate, was on many state ballots again in 2004 but polled just 0.38 per cent nationwide, as Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry took 99 per cent of the vote in another close election. Barr, a former Republican congressman from outside Atlanta, Georgia, has brought name recognition and a degree of mainstream credibility, but some Libertarians have questioned the conservative's recent conversion to their positions on issues such as civil liberties and decriminalizing marijuana. Winger suggested that a 'developing wave' of dissatisfaction among Republicans with the McCain ticket could be unleashed on election day if the race looks to be turning into an Obama landslide. If current signs of a widening margin for Obama hold up for the final week of the campaign, Winger believes that Nader, now running as an independent, and Barr could each reach 2 per cent. That would make 2008 the first election in 60 years in which the third- and fourth-place presidential candidates both collected at least 2 per cent in the national popular vote. In all, four minor candidates are on ballots in at least 32 states each, enough to put all of them in front of voters who will choose a majority of the electoral college. The others in the third-party top tier: Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia, is the Green Party's 2008 nominee and best known nationally for questioning whether the government had advance knowledge of the 2001 terrorist attacks; Chuck Baldwin, a Florida Baptist minister and nominee of the right-wing Constitution Party, which is isolationist and anti-abortion. Voters in some states have further presidential choices. The Western state of Nevada has for decades given its voters an additional choice of 'None of These Candidates.'

On the Web

Blowing Up Blogs

Place your ad here
Loading...

Your Talkback on this Story

Latest Headlines in US

Older Talkback

page: 1

It aint overOct 28th, 2008 - 20:00:44

IBD Poll: McCain in Dead Heat with Obama

Sen. John McCain has narrowed Sen. Barack Obama's lead in the latest IBD/TIPP poll. Obama now leads 46.5 percent to 43.3 percent. The poll's margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.

McCain cut 0.7 point off Obama’s lead Sunday in the Investor's Business Daily/TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics poll, as undecided voters have started to commit.

Report this comment

It aint overOct 28th, 2008 - 20:02:02

California has begun early voting already as well as mail-in balloting. The number of people who have gone in to vote in person has been extensive. The results so far prove what we had always suspected. The polls are being proven as totally unreliable. Although the results of early balloting have not been disclosed,of course,how many Republicans and how many Democrats have voted has been revealed.

The results are simply shocking. The polls showed Barack Obama with an 18 point lead in California just a few days ago. The results thus far are the complete opposite. In the most liberal state in the entire country,the results are that 99,000 Republicans have voted and 96,000 Democrats voted. In the mail-in balloting the results so far are that 9,000 Democrats sent in their ballots and that 5,000 Republicans did so. So with nearly 210,000 people having voted,the Democrats have only a 1,000 vote advantage !

If we take the liberty of assuming that all Republicans will vote for John McCain and all Democrats will vote for Obama,then the race is incredibly close. I'm sure that Obama will eventually win in California,but if he is struggling here after he pushed so hard for early voting,then he will lose the election ! Everybody thought he would win California in a landslide,but so far anyway,it's very tight. That means that in the less liberal states he is in real trouble.

Ignore the pundits. Forget the polls. Get out there and vote for John McCain. The results in California show the wisdom of Yogi Berra who said, 'It's not over until it's over.'

Report this comment

page: 1

US Features

Winning votes is only the last hurdle for US minor parties

On the Web

Your Talkback on this Story

Similar articles

Latest Headlines in US

Older Talkback

Like M&C on Facebook

Viral Web

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print