With all the talk about Barack Obama and John McCain, it’s easy to forget that West Virginians will have other choices for president come November.
Other groups are trying to get their candidates on the West Virginia ballot, but they must collect more than 15,000 signatures of registered voters before the deadline of Aug. 1.
Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia is the Libertarian Party candidate for president. He’s already on the ballot in 48 states. He expects to win a lawsuit in Oklahoma to get him on the ballot there. Guess which state is the last holdout?
West Virginia is the last remaining state where we have to get Bob Barr on the ballot, according to Shane Cory, deputy campaign manager for Bob Barr.
He said West Virginia is one of the toughest states for the third party candidate to get on the ballot. To qualify, Barr must get signatures from 2% of voters from the 2004 election. That’s more than 15,000 signatures.
“For us, it was a matter of resources,” he said. “We had not planned to make an effort in West Virginia. It was only in the last two weeks when we said, we can send in the manpower and we can make a valid attempt to get on the ballot in West Virginia.”
Cory says that West Virginians have been open to the Libertarian philosophy of less government intervention in people’s personal lives and in the economy.
“We’ll lower the tax burden to allow workers to take more money home, as much as possible, and spend that money as they see fit,” he said.
Barr has a ways to go to make it on the ballot, but supporters of consumer advocate Ralph Nader think he’s already there.
Nader supporter Albert Marino has spent the last week traveling across West Virginia, getting signatures in the parking lots of big-box stores.
“I feel like people here are much more independent minded, possibly because they’ve been neglected by the two parties, or possibly because it’s been a one-party state for so long, with a long history of corruption within the party,” Marino said. “It was really refreshing to see how independent-minded people are, and how not afraid they are to vote for the best candidate instead of the lesser of two evils.”
Marino is upset that Obama has shifted his position on several issues – such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – to attract independent voters. He rejects the notion that liberals should support Obama over Nader.
“It might be true that Barack Obama is the most liberal to run for president in a long time, but that just shows how sad the shape of the Democratic party is,” he said.
In addition to Barr and Nader, the Constitution Party is trying to get its nominee, Chuck Baldwin, on the ballot.
And the Mountain Party is guaranteed to get its candidate on the ballot. That’s because its candidate received more than one percent of the vote in the last race for governor.
The Mountain Party has allied itself with the national Green Party, whose candidate is former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
But will any of these candidates have an effect on the election in West Virginia?
In 2000 and 2004, Libertarian candidates received less than one percent of the vote in West Virginia.
In 2000, Nader did much better – getting almost two percent of the vote against Al Gore and George Bush. Nader probably didn’t affect the outcome in West Virginia, but Democrats accused Nader of tilting the close election to Bush in other states.
In 2004, Nader received less than 1% in 2004.