The presidential debate being held in Cleveland on October 30 at 4:30 pm eastern time can be watched at this link, set up by the City Club. C-SPAN will film the debate and air it sometime over the next weekend.
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On October 29, the Los Angeles City Council decided not to ask the voters (in the spring 2009 city election) if they want to use Instant-Runoff Voting for elections for city offices. Instead the Council created a working group to study how IRV could be implemented if it were approved. That study will probably take six months.
On October 30, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Jim Powell, Democratic nominee for one of the statewide Public Service Commissioner races, should remain on the ballot. The Secretary of State, a Republican, had asserted that he does not live in his district, because he has two homes and his homestead exemption was on the house not in the district. But the Court said there are other methods to determine residency.
On October 30, the Albuquerque Weekly Alibi carried a column by a political analyst who says independent candidate Carol Miller may place second, ahead of the Republican nominee, in the race for U.S. House, 3rd district. The district is in the northern third of the state; the largest city in the district is Santa Fe. The district is strongly Democratic. Miller has been included in most of the debates and has been endorsed by the daily newspaper in Los Alamos. She is only the second independent candidate for U.S. House in New Mexico history.
New Mexico independent candidates are at a disadvantage because New Mexico has a straight ticket device. A “straight ticket device” enables voters to push one button that automatically casts a vote for all the nominees of one particular party. Voters who use the device often are not even aware of who they are voting for. Independent candidates are never given a device of their own, on the ballot; only parties get them.
Daily Kos has a daily tracking poll. The October 30 results are here. For weeks now, Barr and Nader had each been at 2%. However, the October 30 results continue to show Barr at 2%, but Nader down to 1%.