The Nebraska Secretary of State has a new voter registration tally. The percentages are: Republican 47.94%; Democratic 29.51%; Libertarian 1.25%; independents and others 21.30%.
Just prior to the November 2018 election, the percentages were: Republican 47.96%; Democratic 29.55%; Libertarian 1.17%; independents and others 21.32%.
Give it a few more months and Nebraska will be the first state since 1998 with a higher percentage of registered libertarians than Alaska.
I keep track of Libertarian registration, as much as possible, given how inconsistent various states are with reporting partisan voter registration statistics. According to my records, LP registration is over 1% in five states — Alaska, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Utah
Kansas and Idaho will join that list in 2020.
Republicans have flipped Greeley and Saline counties to a Republican lead in voter registration.
In West Virginia, I predict that Libertarians will be over 1% by the end of next year. Since regaining qualification in 2012, their growth here has been absolutely exponential: https://sos.wv.gov/elections/Documents/VoterRegistrationTotals/2019/May2019.pdf
IIRC, Libertarians are also over 1% in Maryland – hence the basis for their recent lawsuit regarding party qualification. But, since they lost that suit and are no longer recognized as a party, are those registrations just thrown into the “other” registration category there?
No, unfortunately, the Libertarians are not over 1% in Maryland. If they were, they would be back on the ballot. Their lawsuit has said that since they are over 10,000, is it mindless for the state to require a new petition of 10,000, since it is obvious there are more than 10,000 party supporters in the state.
I thought that the Libertarian Party’s lawsuit in Maryland has yet to be settled?
Andy, the case is still pending. But the judge already denied injunctive relief, on the silly grounds that maybe the 10,000+ registrants are people who registered Libertarian a long time ago and no longer support the party. So she probably won’t give declaratory relief either, and then an appeal would be needed.
Richard, based on the way the party is going, that could be very possible. How often do people bother to change what party they are registered to?
Richard, thanks for the clarification. Got my ones mixed up. 10k, not 1%.
How many LP legislators in the USA Congress and 50 State legislatures NOW ???
PR and AppV
If the rate of growth West Virginia (0.58% in May 2019) has had for the last 5 years is maintained, then Libertarian registrations would hit 1% in late 2023.
After Kansas (0.96% in Nov 2018) and Idaho (0.93% in June 2019), the next most likely state to hit 1% based on its recent growth rate is New Mexico (0.83% in May 2019). But that had a lot to do with Johnson and New Mexico’s growth rate could easily fall off if Johnson stops being involved. Arizona is currently higher than New Mexico (0.85% in April 2019), but the growth rate in Arizona has been very slow lately.
So I have doubts that any other states besides Kansas and Idaho will hit the 1% mark in 2020, in addition to the 5 that are there now (Alaska, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Utah).
@Jim,
My family is going to do its part to help get the Kansas percentage over 1 as we are moving there next month. That will add 4 in July and one more come March when the youngest turns 18.