The Adrian, Michigan daily newspaper, the Daily Telegram, endorsed Gary Johnson for President, even though Michigan voters must cast a write-in vote for him. The title of the editorial acknowledges Johnson’s write-in status. Adrian is the county seat of Lenawee County, on the Ohio border. Thanks to Uncovered Poltics for this news.
The partially counted results in some states indicate that the Libertarian Party has increased its “party” status nationwide, by adding West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, and to a partial extent, Connecticut.
In West Virginia, a party is a group that polls at least 1% for Governor, and Governor is only up in presidential years. The Libertarian nominee for Governor has 1.4%, with 44% of the votes counted. The Libertarian Party only met this hurdle once before, in 1996.
In Pennsylvania, the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate is polling more than 2% of the winning candidate’s vote total for U.S. Senate. This will restore the party’s status as a “party”, which it last had in the period ending November 2010. However, Pennsylvania law is so peculiar, being a “party” doesn’t give much benefit. It enables the group to be on the November ballot automatically for special elections, and puts the party on the voter registration form, but it isn’t on the ballot for regularly-scheduled elections unless it has registration of 15% of the state total.
In Connecticut, the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate is polling 1.7%, which means the party will be on the ballot automatically for that office in 2016. The Connecticut vote test is 1%, but it only applies office-by-office. The Connecticut Libertarian Party has never before had qualified status for any of the three important statewide offices, i.e., President, Governor, or U.S. Senator.
In Wisconsin, the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate is polling 2.8%, which restores the party’s status as a qualified party, which was lost in 2010. The vote test is 1% for any statewide office.
In New Mexico, with 16% of the vote counted, Gary Johnson is polling 3.4%. This is easily enough to keep the party’s status as a qualified minor party (which only requires one-half of 1%) for four years, but falls short of the 5% needed for the more desirable major party status. In New Mexico, a qualified minor party is only on the ballot automatically for President. For all other office, it needs petitions for each of its convention nominees. If Johnson had polled 5%, the party would have its own primary and would not need petitions for its nominees. The candidates would still need a petition to get on the party’s primary ballot, but the number of signatures for that would be quite low.
In the District of Columbia, where the Libertarian Party has never had “party” status, a group needs 7,500 votes for any partisan office other than shadow member of Congress. The Libertarian Party nominee for Delegate to Congress (an office which does count) is polling 5.1%, so it appears he will easily poll 7,500 votes. With only 30% of the vote counted he has over 4,000 votes. See this story.
The party’s status in North Carolina seems safe. The party needs to poll at least 2% for Governor (or President), and at the current tally, the party has 2.11% for Governor, with 96% of the vote counted.
On the evening of November 5, a state court judge in Las Vegas ruled that Democratic nominee Andrew Martin, one of two candidates for Assembly, 9th district, is not a resident of his district. However, at that point it was obviously too late to change the ballot. The only other person on the ballot is the Republican nominee, C. Kelly Hurst. See this story. Thanks to Michael Schaefer for this news. The district has a substantial Democratic registration majority.
New Jersey will accept faxed ballots, and e-mail ballots, through Friday, November 9. See this story. However, voters must have requested the ability to vote using those methods by November 6. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Politico, like many other news web pages, will post election returns. Politico expects to include every presidential candidate in its returns, if that candidate is on the ballot. Here is the link, although of course at this moment there are no election returns from any state, except for two tiny towns in New Hampshire. Thanks to Gregory Koch for this news.
According to this story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is registered “independent.” She is registered to vote in the District of Columbia. In recent decades, most U.S. Supreme Court Justices have been residents of northern Virginia, and Virginia does not have registration by party. But some justices have lived in Maryland, which does have registration by party. Thanks to HowAppealing for the link.