On the evening of September 19, the U.S. House passed HB 5912 by a vote of 310-95. This is the bill to end public funding for national party conventions. The only parties that have ever received public funding to pay for their national conventions have been the Democratic and Republican Parties in years 1976 through 2012, and also the Reform Party received such funding in 2000. The FEC later determined that much of the money sent to the Reform Party for its 2000 national convention had not been spent properly. The FEC asked for repayment, but that repayment was never made, because by the time the court proceedings over repayment were over, the Reform Party had virtually no assets.

The vote in the House needed 2/3rds, and the bill did receive 2/3rds. Every Republican who voted voted “Yes”. Democrats split on the issue, with 85 Democrats voting “yes” and 95 Democrats voting “no”, and ten Democrats not voting.

The Michigan Secretary of State has acknowedged that Gary Johnson is a declared write-in presidential candidate, and his write-ins will be counted. Meanwhile, the Michigan Libertarian Party is still trying to persuade the Sixth Circuit to print the name of Gary Johnson of Texas on the ballot. On September 19 a panel of the Sixth Circuit had denied any relief, two hours before the party had even filed its response brief. The party has asked for a rehearing. The state has never said why it won’t print Jim Gray, the party’s vice-presidential nominee, on the ballot.

Meanwhile, a Glengarrif Poll sponsored by the Detroit News and WDIV shows that the presidential vote in Michigan is 52% for President Obama and 38% for Mitt Romney. See this story.

on September 19, a CNN/ORC poll was released for the Michigan presidential election. Results for registered voters are: President Obama 51%, Mitt Romney 41%, Jill Stein 2%, Virgil Goode 1%, Rocky Anderson 1%, someone else 2%, undecided 3%. Here are more details.

For likely voters, the results are: Obama 52%, Romney 44%, Stein 1%, Goode 1%, Anderson under 1%, someone else 1%, undecided 1%. The poll did not mention Gary Johnson because he is not on the Michigan ballot, although there is a possibility he still will be.

Rocky Anderson has chosen to have himself listed on ballots as Ross Anderson, yet his campaign generally refers to him as Rocky Anderson. Thanks to Andrew Straw for the link.