Bob Barr, the recovering Republican turned libertarian (not great but better than the GOP) made news in the Granite State today by turning in the required amount of petition signatures to make the ballot. The required amount was 3,000, but Barr nearly doubled that with 5,000. New Hampshire, with its "Live Free or Die" motto has given itself plenty of choices for the Presidential election this coming November.
From Politicker NH:
New Hampshire voters are one step closer to having the option of picking from two Libertarian presidential candidates.
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr has collected 5,000 signatures in the Granite State and George Phillies has already qualified to appear on the November ballot. August 6 was the deadline for thirty-party candidates to hand in 3,000 to local election officials who will then verify the signatures.
"There are no sure things when dealing with the two party system, but we have over 5000 signatures submitted for confirmation," New Hampshire Libertarian Party Chairman Brendan Kelly said in an e-mail. "I have turned in 1000 in the Seacoast area and have been getting 90% confirmation. Hope this holds up for the rest of the state."
So in addition to McCain and Obama, Bob Barr and George Phillies will join Ralph Nader as the exceptions to the two-party system. New Hampshire is definitely known for it's independent streak, but it generally skews to the right as opposed to the left. Therefore we should see Phillies and especially Barr take more voters away from the Dems and Repubs than Nader can. With polls already favoring Obama over McCain with only their names on the questionnaire, this can only be good news for the Obama campaign in their quest to solidly win the Northeast.
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