On September 11, a U.S. District Court Judge held a second hearing on Baldwin v Cortes, the ballot access case in Pennsylvania for Chuck Baldwin and the other Constitution Party statewide candidates. This time the hearing was by telephone. It seems somewhat likely the decision will be handed down by the end of the day, September 12. It is still very difficult to predict what will happen.
Bob Barr’s lawsuit against the Oklahoma ballot access law is expected to have a hearing sometime during the week of September 15-19. The case had been filed on July 17. It is Barr v Clingman, civ-08-730-R.
Oklahoma has not permitted voters to vote for anyone for president, other than the Democratic and Republican nominees, since 2000. The state bans write-ins, and has the nation’s only petition requirement for president (using the easier method in each state) that is in excess of 2% of the last vote cast.
Daily Kos has recently launched its own tracking poll. The poll released on September 11 shows: Obama 47%, McCain 45%, Nader 2%, Barr 2%, other and undecided 4%.
The Obama campaign has set up www.voteforchange.com, to make it very easy for unregistered citizens to register to vote. The website asks a prospective voter basic questions, such as name, address, party affiliation, and other personal identifying information. Then, the website automatically fills out a voter registration application for whatever state the voter lives in. The voter is then free to print the completed application on that voter’s home printer, and sign it, and mail it to the state or local election administration address that has already been pre-printed on the form. The site is completely non-partisan and does not collect the personal information provided. Interesting, under the box for “choice of party”, the choices are Democratic, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Green, other, and none. An entry under “other” will accept any designation. Thanks to Ed Still’s VoteLawBlog for this news.
The New York Working Families Party is credited with playing a big role in determining which veteran Democratic state legislators won their primary on September 9, and which ones lost. See this article in the New York Sun of September 11. The party played this role not so much by its nominations choices, as by the fact that it has a large cadre of dedicated campaign workers who do not hesitate to intervene in Democratic Party primaries.
