Alaska releases updated information on the number of registered voters in each party every month. The August 4 tally is available here.
The only parties which gained between the July 3 tally and the August 3 tally are the Libertarian and Alaskan Independence Parties. The percentages are as follows, with the July tally listed first and the August tally second:
Republican: 26.08%, 26.06%
Democratic: 15.66%, 15.64%
Alaskan Indpc: 2.76%, 2.77%
Libertarian: 1.33%, 1.45%
Rep. Moderate: .65%, .64%
Green: .54%, .53%
Veterans: .38%, .38%
Independents: 52.61%, 52.54%
Parties need 9,786 registrants by the spring of 2010 in order to be recognized for the 2010 election. The only parties that have that many are Republican, Democratic and Alaskan Independence, although those three parties don’t actually need any number of registrants because all three of them met the alternate vote test in 2008. Libertarians currently have 6,956, so still need another 2,830. The formula to be on the ballot in a midterm year is to have registration of 3% of the last presidential vote. That formula was made more severe in 2004; before then, it was always 3% of the last gubernatorial vote. If that were still the registration test, the number of registrations needed would only be 7,119.
Thanks for the new numbers..
and from Virginia
Indy Greens of Virginia’s Col. Albert Burckard
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/08/candidate-stumps-light-rail-not-your-vote
As I ask many times, is this a good system that only allows a party to be on the ballot if they have a pre-determined number of votes in past elections. Seems to me that if I wanted to vote libertian, my vote doesn’t count.
The AKLP still didn’t get the much touted 1,000 a month vote gain. Though it is curious that from 06/03/09 to 08/03/09, the AKLP did have an amazing gain from 6,232 to 6,956 registered voters, an increase of 724. Impressive, I just hope that they were all gathered legally.
Morris, I support having votes waiver the petition signature requirement entirely. I’d also add that the vote should be either for federal or state elections. So, if your party gets 20,000 votes in a race for the U.S. President in state “x”, where the waiver is 50,000 votes, but your party does get say 60,000 in a race for the U.S. Senate, even if the Presidential race would be the top of the ticket, you’d still have ballot access.