For “third” Parties, the magic number in any Gubernatorial election is 20%. At 20%, Ga law says the “third” Party is finally legally equal to the “Big 2″.
At least one site seems to think that John Monds could be near the 20% mark:
From the Free Independent-Sun:
I noticed something quite disturbing when studying recent polling for elections around the country. Rasmussen Reports will include upwards of 6 or 7 candidates in the Democrat and Republican Primaries, sometimes with candidates that only receive 1% of the vote, yet when it comes to the General Election they will only include the two Democrat-Republican candidates despite there being sometime upwards of 3 or 4 other candidates from Third Party Nominations or Independent Nominations. This case is most present and most dangerous in a particular Governor’s election in Georgia, where the African-American Libertarian Candidate John Monds is left out of General Election polls despite having won 33.4% in a statewide election in 2008, and apparently the most likely winner of the 15- 20% of unaccounted votes in Rasmussen Polls.
I think the bigger question here, that the Independent-Sun has the graphics to show, is:
Why don’t polling firms who regularly show ALL candidates in Primaries, no matter how small a percentage they are getting, equally show ALL candidates in the General Election, where almost by definition there are fewer candidates to poll for/show? (For example: There were 14 Democrat/Republican candidates for Governor in July. There will be 3 total candidates for Governor in November.)
If true, this is great news for both Libertarians and the African-American community in Georgia, as John is – I believe – the first African American to ever be on the General Election ballot for Governor.
