On October 20, a lower state court ruled that the Vermont Secretary of State was following the law when she disallowed the Green Party’s status as a qualified minor party, back in January 2008. The consequence is that Cynthia McKinney will not be on the ballot, and voters who wish to vote her will need to cast a write-in vote. Vermont does not require write-in candidates to file a declaration of write-in candidacy. However, Vermont has a bad record when it comes to tallying write-ins for president and making the tally part of its official state election returns. For example, in 2004, the Vermont Secretary of State refused to provide a tally of write-ins for David Cobb (Green Party presidential candidate) and Michael Peroutka (Constitution Party presidential candidate). Maybe this year she will handle presidential write-ins better.

The lawsuit is Hill v Markowitz, Washington County Superior Court, 640-9-08.

On October 10, Rasmussen Reports released a Vermont gubernatorial poll, showing Republican Jim Douglas at 45%, independent Anthony Pollina 25%, Democrat Gaye Symington 20%, other and undecided 10%. However, the poll also seemed to suggest that if voters get the idea that if Symington has a better chance to win than Pollina, that Pollina’s support would drop to 4%; whereas if voters feel that Pollina has a better chance than Symington, that 19% would still stick with Symington. See here. In Vermont, if no one gets 50% for Governor, the legislature chooses the next governor. Vermont has a Democratic majority in both houses of the legislature currently, and that is not expected to change.

Georgia elects all 180 members of its State House in every election year. This year, of the 180 races, there is only one candidate on the ballot in 141 of the races.

There are no minor party candidates on the ballot for Georgia legislature this year, but there are two independent candidates for State House. Georgia requires a petition signed by 5% of the number of registered voters, to place a minor party or independent candidate on the ballot for district office.

Republicans failed to run anyone in 61 of the State House races, and Democrats failed to run anyone in 82 of the State House races. In the case of the two independents who managed to get on the ballot, they are each the only opposition to an incumbent.