At 11 AM on Wednesday February 1 2012, Green Party Watch started an online presidential straw poll. 31 hours later, at the time when the straw poll was scheduled to close, 1689 people had voted, each for one candidate. The results:
Jill Stein: 1210 votes
Roseanne Barr: 438 votes
Kent Mesplay: 33 votes
Harley Mikkelson: 8 votes
At approximately 6 AM on January 31 2012, the Americans Elect corporation opened its system to draft presidential candidates through clicks of support. 60 hours later at 6 PM on February 2 2012 (the same time that the Green Party straw poll was scheduled to close), Americans Elect had attracted 935 total clicks of support. Unlike the Green Party straw poll, the Americans Elect straw poll allowed one person to vote up more than one candidate, meaning that Americans Elect likely had far fewer than 935 participants over two and a half days. As of 6 pm, the top ten presidential candidates in terms of support were:
Ron Paul: 197 votes
Jon Huntsman: 135 votes
Buddy Roemer: 78 votes
Bernie Sanders: 67 votes
Barack Obama: 53 votes
Michael Bloomberg: 45 votes
Stephen Colbert: 37 votes
Gary Johnson: 28 votes
Jon Stewart: 20 votes
Lawrence Lessig: 18 votes
Of the top five Americans Elect vote-getters, Jon Huntsman has firmly ruled out an Americans Elect run and instead called for Republican Party “unity” behind Mitt Romney, while Barack Obama is the heavy favorite to walk away with the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Meanwhile, somewhere in the bowels of the Comedy Channel studios, the writing staff is chuckling.
For all the network and cable news shows that have treated Americans Elect staffers to repeated interviews over the past year and a half, wouldn’t a comparison of these results indicate it might be time to invite a Green Party candidate in for a visit?