Zogby released a presidential poll on June 18, with these results: Obama 45%, McCain 40%, Barr 3%, Nader 3%, other or undecided 9%. When Barr and Nader are omitted, the results are: Obama 47%, McCain 42%, other or undecided 12%. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this news.

If the Libertarian Party did poll 3% for president in each state, it would attain qualified status in some states in which it has never before been qualified. Those states are Arkansas, Connecticut (for presidential status in 2012 only), District of Columbia, Iowa, and Kentucky.

In 2007, the Montana legislature moved the petition deadline for independent candidates (for office other than president) from June to March. In April 2008 the ACLU national Voting Rights office filed a lawsuit against the new deadline, on behalf of Steve Kelly, who wanted to run as an independent this year for U.S. Senate.

That lawsuit didn’t get mentioned in the major news media when it was filed. But now that the Republican U.S. Senate primary has nominated Bob Kelleher, who really doesn’t seem to be a bona fide Republican, the press is interested in the lawsuit. Here is one story about it.

On June 18, the California State Senate Elections Committee passed AB583. This bill institutes public funding for the Secretary of State’s election in 2014. It awards $1,500,000 to Democratic and Republican candidates for that office who receive $5 contributions from 7,500 people. Every other candidate for that office would need to receive $5 contributions from 15,000 people to qualify for public funding. Richard Winger testified against that aspect of the bill on behalf of the Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE). The bill passed anyway, 3-2. Now it goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.