The Libertarian Party candidates for the office at the top of the ballot, together, polled 1,016,270 votes on November 2, 2010. The office at the top of the ballot is deemed to be Governor, in all states electing a Governor in 2010. For states that didn’t elect a Governor, it is U.S. Senator. For the four states with neither office up, it is U.S. House of Representatives.
This was only the fourth time that any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, had polled as much as 1,000,000 votes for the office at the top of the ballot, in a midterm year in the 20th or 21st centuries. The other instances had been the Progressive Party in 1914, the Reform Party in 1998, and the Libertarian Party in 2002.
The Constitution Party’s 2010 vote for office at the top of the ballot was 925,583, its best showing ever. The Green Party’s 2010 figure was 520,830. The Green Party’s best showing had been in 2006, when its top-of-the-ticket vote was 942,604.
For the major parties, the November 2010 vote for the office at the top of the ballot was: Republican 41,904,500; Democratic 39,911,467. Parties not named above polled 1,313,532 (almost half of those votes were from New York). Independent candidates received 983,482 votes.
The total share of the vote in 2010 for the office at the top of the ballot, that did not go to either of the two major parties, was 5.50%. That is the highest “other” vote for the top-of-the-ticket in midterm years since 1934. Previous “other” shares of the vote in midterm years have been: 2006, 5.0%; 2002 5.3%; 1998 4.9%; 1994 4.5%; 1990 4.6%; 1986 3.6%; 1982 1.8%; 1978 2.4%; 1974 2.4%; 1970 3.4%; 1966 3.2%; 1962 1.1%; 1958 .9%; 1954 .6%; 1950 1.1%; 1946 1.4%; 1942 4.8%; 1938 3.8%; 1934 5.6%; 1930 6.1%; 1926 4.5%; 1922 4.2%; 1918 6.8%; 1914 16.3%.
The CP’s top of the ticket numbers include Tancredo’s totals in Colorado, correct?
Yes. That’s where over half their vote came from.
How much did the Donkey/Elephant gerrymander EVIL Empires Strike Back against 3rd parties and independents before / during / after 1929-1941 Great Depression I ???
i.e. more and more UNEQUAL ballot access laws.
How many gerrymander districts won / lost by 5.5 percent or less ???
Does the CP vote total include the Alaskan Independent Party Cp endorsed candidates?
#3 the most successful third parties in the Depression Decade were the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, the Wisconsin Progressive Party and the American Labor Party in New York. All three supported FDR and the New Deal, and provided a means for progressive Republicans or former Socialists to back FDR without joining the Democratic Party.
The parties in Minnesota and Wisconsin declined quickly after the 1938 Republican victories in those two states. The ALP in New York remained significant until the Korean War, by which time the Communist Party domination of the ALP caused the major parties to cooperate in defeating ALP officeholders.
Ballot access is still easy in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and New York still has pretty much the same ballot access laws as in the 1930s, I believe.
The vote totals should be for actual candidates running under a party label. I don’t really think those totals should include endorsements from from other parties.
No, the Alaskan Independence Party has never been affiliated with the Constitution Party. I would never have thought to put the Alaskan Independence Party’s vote into the Constitution Party gubernatorial column.
I realize the Alaskan Independence Party twice nominated the presidential candidate from the Constitution Party on its own line, but just because a one-state party does that, does not mean that it is affiliated with the national minor party.