On August 23, David Koch, who was the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1980, died. See this New York Times story. He was 79, and died of prostate cancer, the same disease that killed David Bergland (the 1984 Libertarian nominee) earlier this year.

Back in 1980, when the Libertarian Party nominated Koch, ballot access for president was more difficult than it is today. Yet the Libertarian Party national ticket got on the ballot in all states plus D.C. in 1980. That was the first time any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, had ever got on the ballot in all jurisdictions in the entire history of government-printed ballots, since 1892. That feat was possible only because David Koch was willing to spend the money to pay for ballot access petitioning.

George Wallace in 1968 had appeared on the ballot of all 50 states, but he did not qualify in the District of Columbia, which at the time required a petition of 5% of the registered voters. Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party in 1948 failed to get on the ballot in Illinois, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Robert La Follette of the Progressive Party in 1924 failed to get on the ballot in Louisiana. Theodore Roosevelt of the Progressive Party in 1912 failed to get on in Oklahoma. Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party, in his five runs for president, never got on a government-printed ballot in North Carolina (although North Carolina back then accepted privately-printed ballots, so Debs did receive votes in North Carolina).