58th Rant: The General Election and the Presidential Candidates

With the election 26 days away, I got my absentee ballot in the mail yesterday. Now I know who I will be voting for in the Presidential race so the debates will not be affecting that decision. HOWEVER, one thing did catch my eye. That being the number of candidates running for the President. I managed to save a copy of the General Election Ballot (and you can see what I have to vote for in northeast Lee County, Florida, HERE if you are interested) and on page 1 after the instructions in the left hand column I moved my eyes past the Romney/Ryan ticket and the Obama/Biden ticket (the two tickets which MATTER in this particular election as all others are a vote for Obama anyhow in my well-researched book) and just counted the other presidential tickets running. Here is what I had found out:

1. Thomas Robert Stevens/Alden Link (OBJ) Objectivist Party
2. Gary Johnson/James P. Gray (LBT) Libertarian Party; on ballots of all states except in Michigan and Oklahoma where its ballot access has been challenged. (515 Electoral)
3. Virgil H. Goode Jr./James N. Clymer (CPF) Constitution Party; on ballots in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming - (257 Electoral) with write-in ballot access in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia (214 Electoral) for a total of 471 Electoral
4. Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala (GRE) Green Party; on ballots in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, DC, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin - (447 Electoral) with write-in ballot access in Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri (44 Electoral) for a total of 491 Electoral
5. Andre Barnett/Kenneth Cross (REF) Reform Party USA
6. Stewart Alexander/Alex Mendoza (SOC) Socialist Party USA
7. Peta Lindsay/Yari Osorio (PSL) Party for Socialism and Liberation
8. Roseanne Barr/Cindy Sheehan (PFP) Peace and Freedom Party
9. Tom Hoefling/Jonathan D. Ellis (AIP) American Independent Party
10. Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson/Luis J. Rodriguez (JPF) Justice Party; on ballots in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington - (152 Electoral) with write-in ballot access in Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, DC (175 Electoral) for a total of 327 Electoral (It is interesting to note also that The Justice Party is a new party that was formed on December 13, 2011)
11. Write-in

That’s right there is 24 people (plus whoever others want if the write-in candidate is counted) that are out to divide the vote just on the Florida ballot ALONE. I am sure in other states there are many others who I had not mentioned. Like I said in earlier rants (see Rants 33, 34, 45 and 53) this year, this election is WAY TOO IMPORTANT to waste it on the crumb bums and the shoe clerks (credit to ESPN’s World Series of Poker commentator Norman Chad) that are running for other parties.
The ten tickets I mentioned above are spoiler candidates, with Gary Johnson being a spoil sport because he dropped out of the Republican Presidential Nomination. To me object #1 is and always has been to evict Barack Obama out of the PEOPLE’S White House, and in my mind (as well as the mind of many others) Mitt Romney is the man to do the job. Object #2 this election is to give Mitt Romney a Republican House and Senate to do the job with. I will get to that in another rant.
It is also interesting to note that of the 10 third party tickets which have formal access to ballots or who have write-in access, only 5 of them have access to 270 or more electoral votes according to my research. The other 5 third party tickets either have no access to 270 electoral votes or do not wish to publicize just which ballots they are on. What are those other 5 hiding? We will never know unless they decide to open up.
Bottom line is there are too many tickets running for President, and seeing 12 tickets on my absentee ballot this year kind of reminds me of the Republican Presidential Primary when there were 10 people running. There should be SOME way to coalesce the other third-party tickets, especially since many of them think and feel the same way anyhow.

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