Ralph Nader wants your vote, but first he'll need your signature.

The independent presidential candidate is coming to Raleigh Saturday to hold campaign rally, but he won't be on the North Carolina ballot in November.

So far, only one third-party will have a presidential nominee in North Carolina: The Libertarians.

The Green Party did not submit any signatures before the June 27 deadline to be re-recognized as a party. The two parties also lost a case in May in Wake County Superior Court to overturn the state's tough standards.

The Libertarian Party has filed an appeal.

Under state law, Nader can qualify as a write-in candidate for president by turning in a petition with 500 signatures by noon on Aug. 6.

As a write-in candidate in 2004, Nader received 1,805 votes — or one-tenth of one percent of the ballots cast in that race. He was the top write-in in North Carolina that year.

Correction: An earler version of this post misstated Nader's party affiliation and the status of a lawsuit.

The N.C. Libertarian Party will have 38 candidates on the fall ballot.

The newly re-recognized party formally presented its list of candidates for state and federal offices to the State Board of Elections Monday.

As previously announced, Duke University professor Mike Munger will run for governor. Phillip Rhodes of Chapel Hill is running for lieutenant governor and Mark McMains of Fuquay-Varina for commissioner of insurance. Twenty-four candidates are running for legislative seats.

Chris Cole, a contract postal worker who lives in Huntersville, is running for U.S. Senate. Five candidates are running for Congressional seats: Will Adkins of Cary, Maximillian Longley of Durham, Thomas Hill of Concord, Andy Grum of Matthews and Keith Smith of Bostic.

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr will also be on the ballot. 

The State Board of Elections says to register as a Libertarian now.

Deputy elections director Johnnie Mclean says that registered voters can change their party affiliation to the Libertarian Party even though the widely available state forms do not include it as an option, simply by writing its name in.

"Anybody can do that now," she said.

State Libertarians have complained that the form does not include them, since it was created before the party was re-recognized, arguing it is slowing down re-affiliations. But Mclean said it could be months before new forms are available.

She told Dome that the state software's form-creating software has to be reset and new forms printed and sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, which preclears any North Carolina forms for potential civil rights violations.

The state board plans to print the new forms in the next two to three weeks, and it can take another 60 days after that for the federal government to OK them.

Currently, only 29 Libertarians are registered in North Carolina.

Mike Munger says the state is "dragging its feet" on Libertarian registrations.

The Libertarian gubernatorial nominee and Duke University political science professor tells Dome that the party had more than 13,000 registered voters in 2005.

When the Libertarians lost party status, those voters became unaffiliated, though they should be able to re-register now that it is a party again. But Munger says some of the state's largest boards of elections have not yet posted the forms online to allow it.

"How can we register people as Libertarian when they won't change the forms?" he writes in an e-mail. "The state is intentionally dragging its feet, in violation of the law, and the expressed will of more than 100,000 voters."

As of 8:45 a.m. today, the Wake County board of elections' online form did not include the Libertarian Party, listing only Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated. The Mecklenburg County form and the Guilford County form also lacked the Libertarian option.

The party was recognized in late May, but had only 29 registered members as of this morning.

The number of registered Libertarians has more than doubled.

But don't get too excited — it's only gone from 5 to 11.

As recently as Monday, the State Board of Elections reported only a handful of people registered to the political party, which was only re-recognized in late May.

Deputy elections director Johnnie Mclean said that the state board only recently got the forms together to allow people to re-register, so it will take a while before the party bounces back.

No word yet on whether Mike Munger is one of the 11. 

Matt Towery says Bob Barr could hurt John McCain in North Carolina.

In an interview with the Washington Times, the Atlanta-based pollster and one-time adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich noted a recent poll showing the Libertarian presidential nominee drawing 6 percent here.

"Barr does throw a monkey wrench in Republican plans in states people otherwise take for granted as Republican states," said Matt Towery, chief executive officer of InsiderAdvantage, an Atlanta-based polling and political analysis firm that conducted the Georgia poll, and one-time political adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Mr. Towery said North Carolina and Georgia have large black populations that Mr. Obama can tap to boost his turnout numbers, and both have conservative-leaning voters whose dissatisfaction with President Bush could lead them to a third-party candidate.

The paper also quotes N.C. Republican Party spokesman Brent Woodcox saying "it's too early to tell" whether Barr will be a spoiler like Ross Perot or more like previous Libertarian candidates, who didn't crack 1 percent here.

Bob Barr could have an effect in North Carolina.

In a recent poll by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, the Libertarian presidential candidate received six percent of the vote, drawing more from Republican nominee John McCain, who received 43 percent, than Democratic candidate Barack Obama, who received 40.

(In a match-up with Hillary Clinton, McCain received 39; Clinton, 34; and Barr, 6.)

Barr's strength was with independent voters, many of whom were strongly inclined for McCain in previous polls by the firm.

"It's a long way until the election but the early indication is that Bob Barr's presence on the ballot could be a good sign for whoever ends up as the Democratic nominee," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.

The automated survey of 543 likely voters was done on May 28-29. The margin for error is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Previously: Will Libertarian Party swing N.C.?

Will the Libertarian Party help make North Carolina a swing state?

Earlier this month, Greensboro blogger Ed Cone speculated that a potential run by former Congressman Bob Barr could draw votes away from Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

"Given the blue tide we saw in NC last week, the prospect of a relatively strong Libertarian in the race can't be comforting to McCain, who got less than 75% of the primary vote here, while Ron Paul and No Preference combined for more than 10%," he wrote.

Now that the Libertarians are officially a party, its presidential nominee will be on the ballot.

Brian Irving, a spokesman for the state party, said the state party is more focused on helping gubernatorial nominee Mike Munger get 2 percent of the vote so that it can continue to remain a political party.

In the past two elections, the Libertarian candidate has been the strongest third-party candidate in North Carolina's presidential race, though nowhere near enough to influence a race. In 2004, Michael Badnarik got 11,731 votes, or 0.3 percent. In 2000, Harry Browne got 12,307, or 0.4 percent.

In 1996, Reform Party candidate Ross Perot got 168,059 votes or 6.7 percent, while Browne got 8,740 votes, or 0.3 percent, and Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin got 2,771, or 0.1 percent.

In a tight race, Barr wouldn't need Perot-like numbers to make a difference, but he would need to do better than the usual three-tenths of one percent.

The Libertarian Party will be on the November ballot.

State Board of Elections director Gary Bartlett said he will sign a letter this afternoon recognizing the group as a political party, making the fall elections the eighth time the party has been on the North Carolina ballot.

The Libertarians turned in 72,935 verified signatures to the board on May 15, slightly more than the 70,000 required by state law. Along with the Green Party, it is also suing the state in Wake County Superior Court over ballot access laws that require third parties file a petition with 2 percent of the votes cast in the last governor's race.

The party said it spent four years and nearly $130,000 collecting the signatures.

At a convention in mid-April, it named Duke University professor Mike Munger as its gubernatorial candidate, Mark McMains of Fuquay-Varina for insurance commissioner, Thomas Hill of Concord for the Congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes.

It also named a number of candidates in legislative races.

Communications Director Brian Irving said there may be more to come.

"Now that we're back on the ballot, we're going to have to go through the process of finding people to run for office," he said.

The Libertarian Party believes it has collected enough signatures to get back on the ballot for the November election.

Last week, party officials said they turned in 72,000 signatures to the State Board of Elections to try to gain ballot access for their prospective nominees, Titan Barksdale reports. Libertarians said they have spent four years and and nearly $130,000 collecting the signatures to meet the law that party officials are fighting to overturn.

Officials with the elections board said they are still combing through the signatures to verify their authenticity. The certification process should be completed this week, officials said. If the signatures are certified, it would mark the eighth time the party has been on the ballot.

Libertarians say the effort to get ballot access has been difficult. It's the central issue in a pending lawsuit over the state's ballot access rules for third-party candidates.

State law requires third parties to collect signatures equal to 2 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial race. Attorneys for Libertarian and Green Party candidates argued earlier this month in Wake Superior Court that the law is unconstitutional.

The presiding judge over the case has yet to make a ruling.