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.
“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.”
This is a great example of why it is important to get Libertarian Party candidates on the ballot. Even if they don’t get elected there are other things that they can achieve, such as obtaining ballot access for the party for future elections.
How many of these states did we not have ballot access for going into this year and how much money are we saving?
I saw Gary Johnson has been running at 0.9% in a number of states this evening. Do write-ins and other late votes tend to help or hurt third parties?
The vote tests that the Libertarian Party met in the places mentioned above are all examples of places in which the last time the vote test was applied to the LP, the LP did not pass the vote test (except NC).
It looks like we got around 12,000 votes in DC, almost twice what was needed. We beat the Green Party, which has had ballot status for a while, and came close to beating Romney (who got 14,000 votes).
We spent around $2 per vote.
Feel free to donate to retire our debt.
Did any states that we previously had lose retention?
What a glorious year for LP ballot access. The biggest and best news, of course, is that our candidate for president broke through the million vote barrier. This is of inestimable value to the morale of the party, and will carry us for many years to come.
What is not visible to the naked eye are the fantastic holds and gains we made in ballot access. The biggest and best news on this front is that we kept NC. Wow. Not only do we get ballot status at every level for four glorious years in NC but it saves the party (state and national) over $200,000 in ballot access expenses in 2016. A huge debt of gratitude is owed to our members in NC.
Picking up WV and DC, well, that means a lot to an old campaigner’s heart. One was really tough and the other was impossible. Thanks Bill Redpath, for insisting that proper state candidates be lined up before spending resources on ballot access.
I’m sure “falling back” to 30 states and DC is a new record for us, renewing my faith that someday soon we will have all 50 “under our belts”, “bought and paid for” and then I think you’ll see the LP’s stock rise.