The Montana Secretary of State is not inclined to remove Ron Paul’s name from the ballot as the Constitution Party nominee, since all but five counties have finalized their ballots and sent the information to the printer. The state elections office says if Ron Paul wanted his name off the ballot, he should have notified the Secretary of State by September 5. UPDATE: the decision is still not final.
On September 11, the Montana Secretary of State received a fax from Ron Paul, asking that he not be listed as the Constitution Party presidential nominee. See this story. Thanks to LewRockwell.com Blog for the link.
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%.
