BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - Connecticut elections officials cannot be forced to add the Libertarian Party's presidential ticket to the Nov. 4 state ballot, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall said the Connecticut Libertarians waited too long to file their challenge, in which they said the candidates were denied a place on the ballot over questions about petition signatures.

Forcing elections officials to change Connecticut's ballot less than two weeks before the vote would cause confusion and unreasonable expense, Hall said in her ruling Thursday.

Libertarian Party officials said they are talking with their lawyers about whether to appeal Hall's ruling.

The Libertarians claim elections officials improperly excluded hundreds of petition signatures. That made the party fall short of the 7,500 needed to get Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr and his running mate, Wayne Root, added to the ballot.

State elections officials say many of the signatures had to be thrown out because they lacked details such as names, addresses, birth dates or signatures. That information is required to verify the authenticity of the signatures.

Hall said in her ruling that the state would have been forced to reprint 2 million ballots, reprogram computers and distribute 883 different kinds of forms and computer cards to the state's 169 towns and cities.

"Nothing before the court explains why they waited until 4 p.m. Oct. 17 to file their motion," Hall said of the Libertarians. "The court was available. If I had a motion, I could have acted sooner."

Andrew Rule, a local Libertarian Party official, said he and others needed time to determine which names were improperly excluded so the other side could not "cook me on the stand."

"I did not want to put my name on something unless I was certain it was correct," he said.

The Libertarian Party does not have minor party status for statewide races, which would have allowed it to forgo the petition drive.

To gain minor party status, a party needs to win the votes of at least 1 percent of the electorate in the last statewide election.

What started out as the most promising Third Party campaign in years is turning out to be the most disappointing one in years.

Looking back at the Libertarian convention, the purists of the Libertarian Party did try to warn us, but we did not listen as promises of gold blinded our eyes.

We forgave Bob Barr's despicable voting record in Congress as a Republican and gave him the benefit of the doubt that he truly had repented for his sins and hoped his transformation was true to form in exchange for going after the gold.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be fools gold, as Bob Barr has made one bad decision after another during a Presidential race that could not afford any missteps.

Campaign money was squandered, ballot access in many states mishandled and opportunities missed.

Opportunities that come once in a lifetime were missed such as earning the votes of Ron Paul's supporters. As we all know Ron Paul earned more than a million votes during the Republican Primaries and earned a cult following much like the Grateful dead.

Instead of courting Ron Paul and his supporters, it looked like Barr went out of his way to defecate on them by tossing Ron Paul aside and skipping Ron Paul's endorsement press conference. Newsflash to Barr: stubbornness is not a good Presidential trait, see George W. Bush. Obviously this made Ron Paul very mad and rightfully so, and we all know how the story ends with Dr. Paul endorsing Chuck Baldwin as a result.

I used to laugh at the conspiracy theories going around the internet saying Bob Barr was an infiltrator, but now I've stopped laughing.

I still remember seeing Barr on Fox News very early in the campaign when asked by Neil Cavuto how much money he expected to raise, Barr responded 35 million. Obviously he was counting on Ron Paul's supporters. Way to get that endorsement Bob.

Personally, I have to admit I looked the other way, always defending Barr, continuing to donate money, write articles, blog and email the media, but all along felt uneasy doing so.

I watched with my own eyes as one of my good neighbors peeled his Bob Barr bumper sticker off his truck and replaced it with a Chuck Baldwin bumper sticker. He actually came to my door having seen my Bob Barr bumper sticker and handed me a Baldwin one along with information on The Constitution Party. Boy did this action make me think.

I did not find Baldwin appealing due to the preamble of the Constitution Party, but that was not the point, I had a bad feeling on my candidate that I could not shake, however, I kept supporting my imperfect candidate.

The final straw for me was when the first attempt at a Third Party debate was being put together and Bob Barr refused to attend. Rumors had it he would only debate Ralph Nader alone without the others. I wrote the campaign and urge them not to make this mistake, but they would not listen. What kind of message do you put forth as a Libertarian candidate not wanting to debate ideas and win over votes?

When the final debate was a done deal and announced it was being covered by C-SPAN live, I wrote in Bob Barr's campaign web site blog as I usually did almost on a daily basis, simply that the Third Party debate was on and that C-Span was covering it live. My entry was immediately deleted and so I tried it again in case it was a computer glitch but I was in fact censored. This had never happened before, at least, not to me. How very Libertarian to censor a comment that had no foul or hateful language.

I realized I made the right decision in not casting my vote for Barr.

Today, I voted for Ralph Nader in this third day of early voting in Broward County Florida. And I feel great about my vote.