System in Place for Mayor To Get on Ballot in All States

Mayor Bloomberg has a system in place to get on the ballot in all 50 states and could opt to launch the effort even before he makes a final decision on running for president, a pollster and political strategist who has worked for Mr. Bloomberg, Douglas Schoen, said.

Mr. Schoen also said efforts to look at the field and write off a candidacy by Mr. Bloomberg based on the candidates leading the major parties doesn't make sense.

"There is so much uncertainty in both nominating processes that to say he won't run if Obama is the candidate or McCain is the candidate or Hillary — it's not a practical way of thinking, because things have changed so many times, so frequently, in so many days," he said.

"There is uncertainty, and more importantly, instability, in the electorate, and there is a big desire for change and centrist alternatives," he said.

Supporters of Mr. Bloomberg have speculated that the mayor would make a decision about whether to run after today's primaries and possibly in early March, after the Texas primary, but it appears a final call could be put off for weeks or months.

Mr. Bloomberg's ballot access system was first reported in the Associated Press.

Mr. Schoen, the author of "Declaring Independence: The Beginning of the End of the Two-Party System," said he did not want to speculate about the last possible date for Mr. Bloomberg to decide to run, but said he did not think he could wait until after the Democratic and Republican conventions, which will be held in late August and in early September, respectively.

Mr. Bloomberg is paying a company, the Symposia Group, to conduct a nationwide voter analysis, the company's founder, James Robinson IV, told The New York Sun. When the mayor was asked yesterday about the report, he delivered his standard denial line, saying he is not a candidate. Mr. Schoen said the work of Symposia Group, combined with the efforts of a network of technology entrepreneurs and other sources of support, could mobilize to put Mr. Bloomberg on ballots across the country.

A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg declined to comment.