Bruce Entry, one of the four independent candidates for U.S. Senate in Florida, brought four armed security guards with him on the evening of October 17, as he tried to gain entry to the debate stage. See this story. He was not permitted to join the debate. Debate sponsors said no one would be invited who was not at 15% in the polls. However, no poll has been taken for the Florida race that asked respondents about all of the ballot-listed candidates.
This McClatchy newspaper chain story about Laurence Kotlikoff says that he has filed as a write-in presidential candidate in every state that has such a procedure, except for North Carolina. Kotlikoff does appear to have the best resume for presidential candidates this year who are mostly depending on write-in votes. He has been diligently filing as a write-in in virtually every state, and had been planning on doing this since 2015. As the story says, he also got himself on the ballot in two states, Colorado and Louisiana.
However, he did miss filing as a write-in in Delaware, as well as North Carolina. The story says he plans to bring lawsuits against the states that don’t allow write-in votes for President.
For the first time in history, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has endorsed a congressional candidate who is not a Democratic or Republican Party nominee. See this story. The Chamber has endorsed Martin Babinec, the Reform Party nominee in New York’s 22nd U.S. House district.
On October 17, SurveyUSA released a poll taken in California. For respondents who say they favor Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, an additional question was added. It asks if the voter considers his or her vote more of a vote in favor of that candidate, or a vote against one of the major party candidates. Here is the poll. Scroll down to questions seven (for Johnson) and eight (for Stein).
On Sunday, October 16, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker held unconstitutional a Florida procedure for voters who vote by mail. Florida Democratic Party v Detzner, n.d., 4:16cv-607. Florida procedures permit no-excuse absentee mail balloting. However, the ballot of a voter who voted by mail, and whose signature on his or her outer envelope appears not to match his or her signature on the voter registration card, is not counted, and such voter is not informed until after the election is over.
The court order says that when a mail ballot is considered suspect because the signature on the envelope doesn’t match the signature, the voter must be notified before it is too late.
