Anthony Pollina won enough write-ins in the September 9 Vermont primary to become the Progressive Party’s gubernatorial nominee. The law requires write-in winners to receive at least 250 write-ins, and he won more than that. However, he still declined the nomination. He will be on the ballot only as an independent, even though he is a recent former state chair of the Progressive Party.

Although a poll earlier this month showed him at only 7%, since then he has won the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, the teachers union, and the state employees union.

Vermont’s Democratic member of the U.S. House, Peter Welch, won the Republican nomination by write-in votes. He received 600 write-ins in the Republican primary. No Republican appeared on the Republican primary ballot for that office. Welch will accept the Republican nomination, so he will be listed in November as “Democratic, Republican.”

On September 19, a U.S. District Court in Montana held a trial in Kelly v Johnson, the challenge to the March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidate petitions. Another round of briefs will be filed by September 22.

The Atlanta Journal-Constititution reports:

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr has lost the first clash in his strange Texas fight to keep John McCain and Barack Obama off the ballot in that state.

Campaign manager Russ Verney put out word this afternoon that the Barr campaign’s request for an emergency stay, to block the mailing of ballots to overseas military personnel, has been rejected.

The Texas attorney general successfully argued that an order to halt the shipping of ballots would violate the voting rights of those in the armed services.

Barr contends that the Democratic and Republican nominees are disqualified from appearing on the Texas ballot because they missed the state’s Aug. 26 deadline to certify candidates. Obama was not formally named the Democratic candidate until an Aug. 27 vote in Denver. McCain claimed the Republican nomination on Sept. 3 in St. Paul.

Barr, who was kept off the West Virginia ballot because of a missed deadline, says turnabout is fair play.

The news media has been tentative with this story, uncertain whether the Barr lawsuit is a legal move with profound implications — Texas has 34 electoral votes — or another wispy courtroom sideshow.

But the Dallas Morning News on Thursday had these paragraphs:

The Supreme Court has refused to dismiss the case outright and has asked all parties to file their response to the lawsuit by Monday.

Part of the legal basis for the suit is Bush vs. Gore, by which the U.S. Supreme Court held that “the clearly expressed intent of the legislature must prevail,” and that election laws must be uniformly applied and interpreted.

“Sound familiar Mr. Bush? Sound familiar Republicans?” Mr. Barr said, adding that the state law is unambiguous.

“The Libertarian Party like other parties and independent candidates always face a struggle to get on the ballot and are sometimes excluded from the ballot for the most minor of details,” said state party chairman Patrick Dixon. “We may not like the rules, but we have to play by them.”

Meanwhile, Republicans in Pennsylvania have decided to appeal a judge’s decision last week that permitted Barr to remain on the ballot in that state.