On November 3, a CNN/Orc poll for the Ohio presidential race was released. It mentions five presidential candidates and has these results: Obama 47%, Romney 44%, Johnson 5%, Stein 1%, Goode under one-half of 1%, other or undecided or refused, 3%. See this CNN story; the figures for the five candidates are toward the end of the story.
On November 4, Ralph Nader will moderate a debate between Rocky Anderson, Virgil Goode, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein. Although the room only holds an audience of 100 and is already filled with credentialed members of the media, anyone can watch on-line. Go to www.busboysandpoets.com and click on the video stream. The debate is Sunday, 7:30 pm-9:30 pm east coast time. Busboys and Poets is a restaurant that also has a room for public meetings. Note that this event is on the first day of standard time, not daylight savings time.
On November 5, Free and Equal sponsors a debate between Jill Stein and Gary Johnson in Washington, D.C. It is being held in the studio of RT America (“RT” stands for “Russia Today”) and will include a live audience. The debate runs from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. east coast time. The debate will be streamed live by Free & Equal, Free Speech TV, Stitcher, Orion Radio Network, NextNewsNetwork, Yes Magazine, RT America’s YouTube, American Free Perss, and UK-based Reciva Internet Radio. UPDATE: see this criticism of PBS-TV at Irregular Times. So far, at least, PBS-TV hasn’t said it will carry this debate.
Generally, minor party presidential debates are not true debates. The participants use their time to introduce themselves and their stands on issues to the general public, and are not particularly interested in rhetorical battles with the other candidates present. But the Free & Equal Johnson-Stein debate, with only two participants, might possibly emerge as a chance for each of those two candidates to debate the differences between them, particularly economic issues.
Oregon and Washington vote entirely by postal mail. The Oregon Secretary of State, Kate Brown, recently told the U.S. Postal Service that if a voter sends in a ballot without enough postage, Oregon law requires that the post office not deliver that ballot to the elections office. The Postal Service responded with this October 31 letter. The Postal Service says the Postal Service is not bound by state election law and that the Postal Service will continue its policy of delivering ballots to election offices, even if the ballot arrives “postage due.” Presumably the motive of the Oregon Secretary of State is to save election administration costs.
In Oregon, ballots must arrive by the end of the day on election day, which is November 6 this year. Thanks to Dan Meek for the link. UPDATE: even though the postal service delivers these ballots, some Oregon counties are refusing to count ballots that arrive with postage due.
The Pearson Foundation this year, as in the past, is sponsoring the “My Voice National Student Mock Election”, in which students of all ages participate in a mock presidential/congressional election. The standards and rules vary widely. In some states, only President Obama and Mitt Romney are placed on the ballot. In some states, the results are not released until actual election day (November 6), but in other states, the results are already being released. Voting took place October 25-November 1, except in some states, the voting deadline has been extended due to Sandy.
Here are results from Kentucky, a state in which only the two major party candidates were listed on the ballot, with no write-in space (the actual Kentucky ballot has five candidates and includes write-in space). Here are results from California, which include all six ballot-listed candidates but do not include write-in space (in the actual election, California still has write-in space on the November ballots for President). Here are results from Montana, which include all three ballot-listed presidential candidates and also permits write-in space. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the Montana link. Chances are, results have already been released from other states. Readers are urged to help find them.
Separate from the Mock Student Election is the mock election conducted for high school students by Channel One News, a network for teen-agers. See onevote.channelone.com for the results, or click here. One Vote national results are: President Obama 50%, Mitt Romney 44%, “other” 6%. It is not clear if the “other” results are available.
The Green Party nominee for U.S. House in New York’s 24th district, in Syracuse, has sent $4,250 in campaign contributions to charities and good-government non-profit groups, because she believes the donors gave her campaign the money because the donors want the Republican nominee in that district to win. See this story. Thanks to Green Party Watch for the link. The Republican nominee, the incumbent, is Ann Marie Buerkle and the donors have also contributed to Buerkle and other Republican campaigns recently.
The three ballot-listed candidates in this race have debated each other on television. See this story.
