3rd party hopefuls fight for ballot space

NEW YORK, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Bob Barr and Ralph Nader, the best-known among the third-party presidential candidates, expect to be on most state ballots, campaign officials say.

Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia now the Libertarian Party nominee, is on 34 ballots and hopes to be on 48 by Election Day, party spokesman Andrew Davis says.

Nader, the longtime consumer advocate running as an independent, told USA Today he hopes to be on ballots in at least 45 states by Nov. 4.

Republicans and Democrats are routinely on the ballot but it's long been an issue for third-party candidates who have to meet requirements such as submitting petitions of voters.

Nader spokesman Chris Driscoll said Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma and Indiana pose the most challenges. Davis says it's hardest to get on the ballot in West Virginia and Oklahoma.

Both third-party candidates are mere blips in national polls this year but in 2000, Nader won 97,488 votes in Florida when only 537 votes separated George W. Bush and Al Gore after the U.S. Supreme Court stopped a statewide recount.

Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University, agrees with many Democrats who say Nader cost Gore the presidency.