The Green Party’s David Cobb and Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik jointly announced their intentions to file a formal demand for a statewide recount in Ohio today. The two defeated third-party candidates also called upon Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who chaired President Bush’s campaign in the Buckeye State, to recuse himself from the recount process. Cobb and Badnarik hope to raise $110,000 to pay for the recall. Earlier today, Ralph Nader, who was forced to wage a write-in campaign in Ohio after his name was stricken from the ballot, also called for a statewide recount in the presidential race. The longtime consumer activist, who is also demanding a recount in New Hampshire, also blasted the Ohio Secretary of State, saying he should resign in disgrace. “When people are standing in line for four or five hours and they are told they’ve got to stand in line for another five hours and they leave because they’ve got to go to work or they got to pick up their child at day care, that’s a constitutional crime,” Nader asserted. Unofficial results in Ohio show Bush leading Democrat John F. Kerry by more than 136,000 votes with more than 155,000 provisional ballots and an undetermined number of absentee ballots yet to be counted.

(from Darcy Richardson)

The Green Party of California elected at least 15 candidates to local office and now control two city councils. All such local offices in California are elected as non-partisan.

The Greens elected two to the Arcata (Humboldt County) City Council, gaining a majority. The party retained control of the Sebastopol (Sonoma County) City Council by winning two open spots.

In San Francisco, longtime Green campaign consultant Ross Mirkarimi won the District 5 race for County Supervisor, a seat vacated by popular Green Matt Gonzalez, who chose not to seek re-election.

City Councilwoman Donna Frye appears to have won election for Mayor of California’s second largest city as a write-in candidate. The city, like all cities in California, uses non-partisan elections. San Diego held a first round in March, at which no one got a majority. A run-off was scheduled for November 2, with the top two candidates names printed on the ballot.

However, after the first round in March, it became public knowledge that both candidates in the November run-off were objectionable. In September, Frye entered the mayoral race as a write-in candidate, and she appears to have won. Frey is already leading the vote over incumbent Mayor Dck Murphy. Since more write-in votes have yet to be counted, it is expected that Frey will easily be elected.