On October 29, the Albuquerque Journal released the results of a presidential poll for New Mexico. It shows: Obama 50%, Romney 41%, Johnson 5%, other or undecided 5%.
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As noted earlier, the New Mexico Democratic Party sued Republican Secretary of State Dianna Duran in the State Supreme Court on October 11. The Secretary of State did not put a straight-ticket device on this year’s ballots, and the Democratic Party charges she should have put such a device on ballots.
On October 15, the Secretary of State had the case transferred to federal court, where it is called Democratic Party of New Mexico v Duran, 1:12-cv-1061. The federal courts have not expedited it, so plainly it cannot have any effect this year. The case was first assigned to two federal magistrates who ordered briefs to be filed by October 19. But then it was assigned to a judge, and then reassigned to another judge, and then reassigned to yet another judge, and the third judge canceled the order that required briefs to be filed by October 19.
According to this article, an AP survey of major party presidential elector candidates in September reveals there are a handful of Republican presidential elector candidates who, if elected, are pondering casting their vote for someone other than Mitt Romney. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
South Carolina has 36 independent candidates for the legislature on the ballot this year, far more than it has ever had before. This is because of the peculiar circumstances earlier this year that kept over 100 legislative candidates from running in the major party primaries. The excluded candidates were permitted to become independent candidates after they failed to qualify for the primary ballot. Therefore, the vast majority, if not all, of the independents self-identify as Republicans or Democrats.
At no time in the past twenty years, prior to 2012, have there been more than three independent legislative candidates on the South Carolina ballot.
Key Research recently released this Utah poll, including a poll for President. It shows Romney 71%, Obama 20%, undecided or other 9%. If President Obama actually gets 20% in the election, that would be the lowest showing for a major party presidential nominee in any state since 1972, when George McGovern only got 19.6% in Mississippi.
In the U.S. Senate poll, 17% of the voters are undecided or planning to vote for someone other than the major party nominees. Candidates on the ballot for U.S. Senate are: Republican Orrin Hatch, Democrat Scott Howell, Constitution Party nominee Shaun McCausland, Justice Party nominee Daniel Geery, and independent Bill Barron.