State and Regional News

MONTGOMERY — Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain likely won't be the only presidential candidates listed on Alabama's Nov. 4 ballot.

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The campaigns of Ralph Nader, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin and Cynthia McKinney hope to have their names spread across the top of Alabama's ballot along with the major party candidates.

The independent and third-party candidates have supporters — and in some cases paid professionals — scurrying across the state to get voters to sign petitions to get them on the ballot.

For ballot access, the campaigns must collect the signatures of 5,000 people registered to vote in Alabama. The petitions must be submitted by Sept. 5 to the secretary of state in Montgomery.

Chris Driscoll, campaign spokesman for Nader, said the campaign has already collected 5,700 signatures, but plans on getting 9,000 before turning in the names to the secretary of state's office in Montgomery.

Driscoll said the extra signatures are a safety measure because some people don't fill out the petition correctly and some people sign the petitions even though they aren't registered voters in the state.

Nader's campaign drive was helped by his recent trip to the state. With a month to go before the remaining signatures must be turned in, Driscoll said, "We're well on the way to success."

Nader also gained ballot access in 2004. The consumer advocate and political activist got 6,701 votes, compared to 1.18 million for Alabama's winner, President Bush.

Stephen Gordon, chairman of the Alabama Libertarian Party, said the group has collected a little more than half the number of signatures needed to get Barr, the former Georgia congressman, on the ballot.

"We are not anticipating any problems," he said.

Chris Depew, state representative for Baldwin's campaign, said he doesn't have the exact number of signature collected so far, but he expects no trouble meeting the deadline for getting the Constitution Party nominee on the ballot.

Baldwin, a minister and radio talk show host from Pensacola, Fla., was the vice presidential running mate four years ago for Michael Peroutka, who got 1,994 votes in Alabama.

Mark Read Pickens, a professional petition gatherer who has been helping the Nader, Barr and Baldwin campaigns in Alabama, concurred that all three should meet the deadline.

"The more choices we have, the better off we are," Pickens said Thursday while collecting signatures at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Supporters of McKinney, the former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party nominee, are just getting started, said Rob Collins, a member of the party's Alabama organizing committee.

The party did not get its 2004 nominee, David Cobb, on the ballot in Alabama, but Collins said the all-volunteer group is recruiting people to pass around McKinney petitions in hopes of getting a ballot spot.

If the candidates are successful, they will appear on Alabama's ballot as independent candidates rather than with party labels. The deadline for third parties to get on the ballot was June 3, and no party turned in the 37,513 signatures required by state law, said Rob Johnston, elections attorney for the secretary of state's office.