Perry and Palin left off Iowa straw poll ballot

Iowa GOP officials voted Saturday to expand the ballot of next month's presidential straw poll in Ames, but two prominent 2012 hopefuls were left off the list.

Rick Perry and Sarah Palin will not be included on the official straw poll ballot, according to the Iowa state GOP, because they are not yet official candidates for the nomination. But the committee did reverse tradition to include three candidates who have opted to skip the Aug. 13 straw poll: Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich.

Six other candidates have already qualified for the ballot by purchasing space at the event: Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain and Thaddeus McCotter.

As The Ticket previously reported, Perry supporters had been angling to get the Texas governor's name officially on the ballot, amid signs he's increasingly likely to jump into the 2012 nomination race. But the Iowa GOP committee, in a 6 to 5 vote, defeated a measure that would have added Palin and Perry to the official candidate list.

Still, Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn noted to reporters afterwards that attendees can still vote for Palin or Perry by submitting their names as a write-in.

"You can vote for anyone you like," he told the Des Moines Register. "I've heard from people who are going to write in Mike Huckabee."