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.