This year, 23 presidential candidates are on the ballot in at least one state. That is the highest in U.S. history except for 1992, when there were also 23. Generally there are more such candidates in periods of great public unhappiness.
Here is a list, with the predominant party label for each, and the percentage of the voters that will see their names on the ballot:
Barack Obama, Democratic, 100.0%
John McCain, Republican, 100.0%
Bob Barr, Libertarian, 94.5%
Ralph Nader, independent, 85.2%
Cynthia McKinney, Green, 70.5%
Chuck Baldwin, Constitution, 59.8%
Gloria La Riva, Socialism and Liberation, 26.8%
Roger Calero or his stand-in James Harris, Socialist Workers, 25.0%
Brian Moore, Socialist, 21.5%
Alan Keyes, America’s Independent Party, 18.1%
Charles Jay, Boston Tea, 10.0%
Gene Amondson, Prohibition, 9.6%
Thomas Robert Stevens, Objectivist, 8.0%
Richard Duncan, independent, 4.6%
John Joseph Polachek, New, 4.3%
Jeffrey Boss, Vote Here, 3.0%
Jeffrey Wamboldt, We the People, 2.5%
Ron Paul, Taxpayers/Constitution, 2.0%
Jonathan E. Allen, HeartQuake ’08, 1.7%
Bradford Lyttle, U.S. Pacifist, 1.7%
Frank McEnulty, unaffiliated, 1.7%
Ted Weill, Reform, .9%
George Phillies, Libertarian, .6%
great research !!!!
Vote Nader 08
http://www.nolanchart.com/article5275.html
Great list. Any idea how many of them got on the ballot in states where they had to collect signatures, rather than just pay a fee (like Colorado)?
This is somewhat disappointing for Chuck Baldwin. Hasn’t the Constitution Party in the past been on more than 37 state ballots? What was the problem this year?
The ones who didn’t collect signatures were Stevens (Objectivist), Ron Paul, Allen, Lyttle, McEnulty, and Weill.
Polachek didn’t submit any signatures, but he got on the ballot because both major parties were totally asleep.
The two big setbacks for Chuck Baldwin this year were California and Pennsylvania. Michael Peroutka in 2004, and Howard Phillips in earlier years, were on in those two big states.
Anon,
Keyes didn’t collect any signatures, either.
Are you sure about your numbers? How can it be that Richard Duncan’s name will be seen by more voters than John Joseph Polachek? Duncan is on the ballot in Ohio which has 20 EV while Polachek is on the ballot in Illinois with 21 EV. According to the U.S. Census Ohio has 11,478,000 people while Illinois has 12,831,970.
Ohio’s secretary of state reported 8.2 million registered voters.
I don’t have the current number of register voters in Illinois but there were 7.3 million registered voters in 2006.
The calculation is based on the number of votes cast for president in each state in 2004. Ohio cast 5,627,908 votes for president in 2004, but Illinois only cast 5,274,322. Ohio had higher turnout than Illinois because in 2004 the major party nominees campaigned like crazy in Ohio, but ignored Illinois, since Ohio was too close to call but Illinois was safe for the Democrats.
Good stuff. Now for the addendum: who on those list can mathematically win the election?
I see that list as being Obama, McCain, Barr, Nader, Moore, probably McKinney and Baldwin.
Mind, that’s who can mathematically win, not who’s liekly to.
Only Obama, McCain, Nader, Barr, and McKinney can win in the electoral college. That’s well known. Are you asking who could hypothetically win a plurality if they won every vote they could possibly get and the rest of the vote was split equally between the other candidates? That’s just too much work.
Oh, and Baldwin could win too.
If one assumes the utter implausibly that anyone could ever carry a state on write-in votes, and just looks at candidates on the ballot, the six theoretical winners are Obama, McCain, Nader, Barr, McKinney, and Baldwin.
If one gets ultra-theoretical and includes write-ins, then Brian Moore and Frank Moore could also be elected.
No, I was referring to who could win an outright EC majority. In any case, Richard answered the question.
Baldwin will be on 37 state ballots while Peroutka was only on 36 state ballots in 04′.
We’re still on in Illinois, Wisconsin, Vermont, Mass., Hawaii and West Virginia- we weren’t on in those states the previous Prez. Election.
If you look at the 12th Amendment of the Constitution ANYONE can win out of these candidates … in OVERTIME … Bet you all did not know that … see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGKSOkZ6nSE or look at http://www.HeartQuake08.com