Arizona held primaries on August 24 for the Democratic, Green, Libertarian and Republican Parties. The Libertarian gubernatorial primary had 4 candidates on the ballot. Barry Hess won with 1,135 votes, or 43.1%. Second was Bruce Olsen with 546 votes, 20.7%. Third was Ron Cavanaugh, 484 votes, 18.4%. Fourth was Alvin Yount, 208, 7.9%. There were also 260 write-ins for Governor. These results are not entirely final.
Although the Green Party had no statewide contests with more than a single person on the primary ballot, the primary turnout in the Green primary was surprisingly high. For Governor, Larry Gist’s name was on the ballot, and he received 1,628 votes. There are 403 write-ins for Governor in the Green Party primary, showing that at least 2,031 voters voted in the Green Party primary. The Green Party let independent voters vote in its primary, whereas the Libertarian Party did not.
Doesn’t the law in AZ require small parties to have open primaries?
Independent and unaffiliated voters are permitted to participate in Arizona’s Primary Election, provided that they choose a ballot of the party of their choice: Republican, Democratic or Green. The Libertarian primary has been closed to Independent voters due to a court order.
Libertarians won a lawsuit in 2007 by pointing out that if independents were allowed to help choose Libertarian nominees, there are so many hundreds of thousands of independent voters, it would be extremely expensive for Libertarian candidates to campaign among independent voters. By contrast, with about 20,000 registered Libertarians, it is plausible that Libertarian candidates can afford to communicate with most of the party’s registered members.
Thanks for the Green Party news.
Good to see the Green Party with many candidates on the ballot.
Arizona law mandates that independents and registrants of unqualified parties are eligible to vote in the primary of their choice. The Libertarians won an exemption from this law (AZ Libertarian v. Brewer, 2007), and the Republicans may bring suit against the law next year.
The Libertarians could invite independents and registrants of unqualified parties to vote in their primary if they wanted to.
When some non-members are permitted to vote in a primary, while other non-members are excluded, that’s a semi-closed primary.
Wasn’t Barry Hess the Libertarian nominee for governor in 2002, when Janet Napolitano (D) was elected with less than 50%? Matt Salmon was the Republican nominee.