On October 30, a presidential poll paid for by CBS and the New York Times was released. It shows Obama 52%, McCain 41%, undecided 5%, and other 2%. The poll did not ask voters about any presidential candidates other than Obama and McCain; people had to volunteer anyone else. For more details, see here. UPDATE: apparently the poll did mention Nader and Barr; see Art’s comment.
The national Green Party hopes to win up to four state house seats this year. In Arkansas, Richard Carroll is favored to win. In Minnesota, Farheen Hakeem is well-known in her district in Minneapolis and formerly polled 14% for Mayor (in 2005) and 33% for County Commissioner (in 2006).
In Arizona, Kent Solberg, running in Tucson, has qualified for public funding and has been endorsed by Tucson’s biggest daily newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star.
In Illinois, Ante Marijean has been endorsed by both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.
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.
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.
