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.

The Connecticut Democratic primary held on August 14 featured a very close contest for the party’s nomination for State Representative, 5th district. A recount was held, which ended up as a tie. Then it was discovered that one absentee ballot had never been counted because, while the ballot was still sealed, someone wrote “deceased” on the outer envelope. But, it turns out that voter is not dead. She is a 91-year-old woman living in a nursing home. Her ballot, which still hasn’t been opened, will presumably decide the race, unless possibly she voted for the third candidate on the ballot, or possibly she left that office blank. See this story.

This real-life incident is reminiscent of the 2008 film “Swing Vote.” UPDATE: on September 20, the ballot envelope was opened, but the voter had voted for the third-ranked candidate, so her vote didn’t change the tie between the top two finishers. Therefore, a new primary will be held. See this story. The federal law concerning the need to mail overseas absentee votes does not pertain to state office, so it seems likely this office will be omitted from the general election ballot mailed to overseas voters.

On September 19, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to order the Michigan Secretary of State to either halt the ballot-printing process, or to put Gary Johnson on the ballot. The only presidential candidates who were ever put on the ballot by the U.S. Supreme Court just prior to an election have been George Wallace in 1968 and Eugene McCarthy in 1976. Also in 1980 Ohio asked the U.S. Supreme Court to remove John Anderson from the ballot, but the Court refused to do that.