On February 10, Edward H. Crane died at the age of 81. Although most of the obituaries emphasize his role in creating the libertarian think tank CATO, another of his great achievements was managing Libertarian Party access in 1980. Under his leadership as the de facto campaign manager for presidential nominee Ed Clark, the Libertarian Party was on the ballot in all 51 ballots for president. That may not seem like a starting achievement, until one realizes that no presidential candidate running outside the two major parties had appeared on the ballot of all government-printed ballots since 1892. A few months after Clark achieved his ballot access, independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson also achieved it, by winning a Georgia ballot access case in October 1980.

The Socialist Party had not managed to be on the North Carolina government-printed ballot until 1932. Eugene Debs received votes in North Carolina 1900-1912 and 1920, but they were cast on private ballots.

Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 missed Oklahoma. Robert La Follette in 1924 missed Louisiana. Henry Wallace in 1948 missed Illinois, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. George Wallace in 1968 missed the District of Columbia.

Crane was the first person to believe that the 1980 Libertarian ticket could get on all ballots. In 1976 the Libertarian presidential nominee had only been on the ballot in 33 jurisdictions. Fortunately for the Clark campaign, in 1976 the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down a 1974 federal campaign finance law that made it illegal for a candidate to spend as much of his or her own money on the campaign. Because the 1980 Libertarian ticket had a millionaire nominee for vice-president, who spent $3,000,000, the 1980 ticket had the money to complete 46 petition and registration drives (after the 1978 election the Libertarian Party was on the ballot in five states, so for those five, no petition was needed).

Achieving ballot access in all 51 jurisdictions in 1980 meant that the party had to gather over 500,000 valid signatures.

Crane was also the Libertarian Party national chairman 1974-1977.