Did you have any of these 3rd Party tickets on your ballot?

[sniffa]

Presidential candidate/running mate ↓ Party ↓ Campaign site Ballot Access (states/districts)

Chuck Baldwin/Darrell Castle (campaign) Constitution, Alaskan Independence Party, Kansas Reform, Independent Greens of Virginia baldwin2008.com 37

Bob Barr/Wayne Allyn Root (campaign) Libertarian bobbarr2008.com 45

Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente (campaign) Green votetruth08.com 32

Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzalez (campaign) Independent, Independence-Ecology,<90> Peace and Freedom, Michigan Natural Law, Delaware Independent, Oregon Peace, New York Populist<89> votenader.org 46

Gene Amondson/Leroy Pletten Prohibition geneamondson.com *

Róger Calero/Alyson Kennedy Socialist Workers themilitant.com *

Charles Jay/Thomas L. Knapp Boston Tea CJ08.com *

Alan Keyes/Brian Rohrbough (campaign) Independent, America's Independent alankeyes.com *

Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear Socialism & Liberation votepsl.org *

Brian Moore/Stewart Alexander Socialist, Vermont Liberty Union Mississippi Natural Law Party votesocialist2008.org *

Thomas Stevens/Alden Link Objectivist objectivistparty.us *

Jerry White/Bill Van Auken Socialist Equality Party wsws.org *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008#General_Election_candidates

I had no idea the Prohibition Party was around, or that there's a Boston Tea Party.... or that Alan Keyes was still running.

[XemaSab]

1. Yes

Bob Barr/Wayne Allyn Root (campaign) Libertarian bobbarr2008.com 45

Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente (campaign) Green votetruth08.com 32

Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzalez (campaign) Independent, Independence-Ecology,<90> Peace and Freedom, Michigan Natural Law, Delaware Independent, Oregon Peace, New York Populist<89> votenader.org 46

Alan Keyes/Brian Rohrbough (campaign) Independent, America's Independent alankeyes.com *

Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear Socialism & Liberation votepsl.org *

[sniffa]

2. In CA?

I saw many of these parties were on the ballot in FL and CO and I just figured standards for getting on the ballot in those states were rather lax. :shrug:

[enlightenment]

9. Lax?

That's an interesting choice of words.
What standards do you think should be set, sniffa? Seriously - I'm not trying to be snarky.

Personally, I'd rather have a ballot that gives a hundred options than deny any group - regardless of how abhorrent or ridiculous I find them - the opportunity. America is only a de facto two-party system; it's not encoded in law and certainly not in the Constitution and that's the way I think it should be . . .

[sniffa]

10. A certain number of signatures to get on the ballot

My state is 10,000 (I think for every ballot item) and that's not too high of a threshold IMO.

[enlightenment]

17. Fair, if it were consistently applied in every state.

But I'm not sure having different rules in different states is sound, since you're talking about a national office, not a state ballot item.

;)

[XemaSab]

15. Yes, in California

There are a LOT of people here, so I would guess getting to 20K or whatever is easier. :shrug:

[Blue_In_AK]

3. Several AIPs on our ballot, of course.

In fact, we have AIP senate candidate Bob Bird to thank for Mark Begich's victory. He took over 4% of the vote which would undoubtedly have gone to Stevens otherwise.

Barr (L), Nader (I) and Baldwin (AIP) were on our presidential ticket.

[sniffa]

6. Has the AIP ever held office?

In 1990, Walter Joseph Hickel, a former Republican, won the election for governor as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, along with Jack Coghill as his running mate. This was the only time since Alaska joined the union that a third-party candidate has been elected governor. Hickel refused a vote on secession called on by a fringe group within the AIP loyal to Vogler's original vision. He rejoined the Republican Party in 1994, with eight months remaining in his term.

The party did not get involved in presidential elections until 1992, when it endorsed Howard Phillips, the candidate of the U.S. Taxpayers Party (now the Constitution Party). The AIP is listed as an affiliate of the Constitution Party on the latter party's website.<2>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Independence_Party#History

That guy was just a AIPino.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I believe Wally is the only one.

Back in those days we had open primaries, and the Republicans were all in a tizzy because moderate pro-choice female Arliss Sturgulewski ended up being their nominee (probably with a little help from her Democratic friends - she's a very qualified woman). The Republican honchos got together with the AIP and convinced their nominee, John Lindauer, to drop out so that Wally could run instead on that ticket. He ended up taking the prize, but you are correct, he was never REALLY AIP.

Although he had common ground with the Alaska Independence Party in fighting restrictions on land use imposed by federal environmentalism, Hickel had been one of the most influential historical proponents of Alaska statehood and never endorsed the AIP's secessionism, prompting some party faithful to petition for his recall. He rejoined the Republican Party in April 1994, near the tail end of his term. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Hickel

[NoPasaran]

4. The Libertarians were on the ballot in Texas

I don't think the Greens have qualified since 2000.

[ThomWV]

5. We had Barr, McKinney, and Nader along with the others.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. We had those 3 but not Baldwin. I think there might have been a socialist?

[sniffa]

11. We usually have that list too

To be honest, I just realized I didn't scan the whole ballot to see what parties were on it (usually one of my favorite things to do) because I was a bit in a tizzy over voting this time.

This reminds me though - during the primaries there was a ballot for some new party here; something about Workers/Working party if I'm remembering right but I think it's right wing.

Edit: I was mistaken.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Families_Party

In the 1998 election for governor of New York, the party cross-endorsed the Democratic Party candidate, Peter Vallone. Because he received more than 50,000 votes on the WFP line, the party gained an automatic ballot line for the succeeding four years. <2> In 2000, Patricia Eddington of the WFP was elected to the New York State Assembly. In the 2002 election, the Liberal Party, running Andrew Cuomo (who had withdrawn from the Democratic primary), and the Green Party, running academic Stanley Aronowitz, failed to reach that threshold and lost the ballot lines they had previously won. This left the WFP as the only left-progressive minor party with a ballot line. This situation will continue until at least 2011 following the party's cross-endorsement of Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 election, in which he received more than 155,000 votes on the Working Families Party line, more than three times the required 50,000. The Working Families Party endorsed Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) in the 2008 presidential election.<3>

[greendog]

12. A few...

Bob Barr/Wayne Allyn Root

Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente

Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzalez

Ron Paul/Michael Peroutka

[sniffa]

13. I know Paul was on one or two ballots

but I never knew he had a running mate?

He should have run as Barr's running mate.

[greendog]

14. He didn't actually "choose" to be on our ballot.

The Montana Constitution Party decided that they preferred Ron Paul to whoever the national Constitution Party had nominated. They fixed him up with a running mate. He got 2.2% of the vote.

[sniffa]

16. I thought it might be something like that

Thanks for the info.