Recently Evan McMullin was on the Chris Matthews interview show. According to this story, Matthews pressed McMullin to name states other than Utah that he could carry. McMullin responded by saying Idaho and Wyoming. Apparently Chris Matthews did not then point out that McMullin is not on the ballot in Wyoming. Wyoming does permit write-ins for president, however.
On Seotember 28, the Alabama Secretary of State filed a notice of appeal in Hall v Merrill. The U.S. District Court on September 30 had ruled that it is unconstitutional to require an independent candidate for U.S. House to collect 3% of the last gubernatorial vote in special elections. The state hopes to get that reversed.
In the entire history of government-printed ballots in Alabama, no independent has ever petitioned onto the ballot for U.S. House in a special election. Thus the state will be hard pressed to talk about overly-crowded ballots. The case had been brought in 2013 by James Hall, who tried very hard to get on the ballot in the special congressional election held when Congressman Jo Bonner resigned in the middle of his term.
According to Arizona Politics blog, the Arizona Republican Party itself has sent out campaign literature boosting the Green Party nominee for U.S. House, in the First District. Earlier a PAC linked to the Republican Party was also boosting the Green. This is a prime example of why the U.S. would be better off if it used instant runoff voting.
Wyoming is so safely Republican, it is rare for anyone to spend money polling there. But the University of Wyoming’s Survey and Analysis Center did a poll October 5-11, and only on October 27 released the results, which were: Donald Trump 58%; Hillary Clinton 20%; Gary Johnson 9%; Jill Stein 2%; another candidate (which had to be volunteered by the respondent) 2%; won’t vote 1%; undecided 7%; refused to answer 1%. Also on the ballot are Darrell Castle and Rocky De La Fuente, but they were not mentioned by the pollsters.
The Survey also asked about the U.S. House race, but only mentioned the Republican and Democratic nominees. There are also Libertarian and Constitution Party nominees on the ballot.
California voters will see a November ballot with only two Democrats on the ballot, and no write-in space. On October 27, PPIC released a poll for the Senate race. The poll includes president and some of the statewide ballot measures as well. For the U.S. Senate race, the results are: Kamala Harris 42%; Loretta Sanchez 20%; won’t vote 18%; don’t know yet 20%.
By contrast, in the Presidential race, where five candidates are on the ballot and write-ins are permitted, only 1% of respondents say they won’t vote. The presidential results are: Hillary Clinton 54%; Donald Trump 28%; Gary Johnson 5%; Jill Stein 5%; someone else 2% (volunteered); 1% won’t vote; 4% undecided. It is unfortunate that the poll didn’t include Gloria La Riva, because her name is also on the ballot. See the results here. Thanks to Carla Marinucci for the link.
