The number of registered members in each party, in each state, will be in the December 1, 2008 printed Ballot Access News. Compared to the period January/February 2008, the national totals in the 30 states that have registration by party (counting D.C. as a state) show a relative increase for Democrats and minor parties, and a relative decline for Republicans and independents.
The new figures show: Democratic 43.61%; Republican 30.69%; independent and miscellaneous 24.02%; Constitution .43%, Green .25%, Libertarian .24%, Working Families .05%, other minor parties .71%.
The figures early in 2008 showed: Democratic 41.66%; Republican 31.89%; independent and miscellaneous 24.82%; Constitution .41%; Green .28%; Libertarian .24%; other minor parties (including Working Familes) .71%.
One might have expected Republican registration to rise, since many voters changed to Republican in order to vote in the contentious Republican presidential primaries.
All data is current, except that Louisiana’s is old. By the time the December 1 newsletter is ready for print, current Louisiana data should be in hand. For purposes of the calculation, the American Independent Party of California is assumed to still be the California unit of the Constitution Party. The court case earlier this year between two factions of that party did not resolve the issue, but the case continues.
Richard,
Be sure to ask in Louisiana for both the Constitution Party and Constitutional Party.
Also,
Can you post the raw numbers and not just percentages? Im interested in those.
The moderator of the Las Vegas VP debate called Darrell Castle’s party the “Constitutional” Party. He also said Matt Gonzalez was with the Independent Party.
Steve,
In many states,the state chairman actually prefer the name Constitutional Party. Especially in Pennsylvania, where the Constitutional Party WAS the name of a right-wing party in PA for…some 20-odd years. In LA the party was actually started as the Taxpayer’s Party and then when we switched, the state chairman wanted to be called the Constitutional Party—for 3-4 years. So the LACP actually has more registered members under “al” suffix.
The national party, of course, began as the U. S. Taxpayers Party in 1992 and changed to the Constitution Party in time for the 1996 campaign.
I recently came across my video copy of Howard Phillips’s acceptance speech in New Orleans in 1992 (also, the video of Ron Paul’s appearance on C-SPAN near the end of the 1988 campaign).
Here in CT Gonzalez was the candidate of the Independent Party.
The Constitution Party changed in time for the 2000 campaign, not the 1996.
in Pa we are also listed seperately as constitution and constitutional parties. In my county I always count them as one, even if the state or county wont.
re: California, is there a scheduled hearing on the court wrangling? Are there any updates from the factions?
It’s funny. The LACP rose from 50-something registrations to 100-something in 6 months and then suddenly discovered that about 200 people were registered “Constitutional”. Furthermore, they found another 400 registered “Taxpayer’s Party” or “US Taxpayer’s Party”. So sometihng like 700 registered voters were within their grasps back when they thought they had 100.
Trent,
Does that mean that the LACP is within about 300 registrations of meeting the threshold needed to become a recognized party? Will the La. SOS accept those variations?
The court hearing in Sacramento, California, on the American Independent Party, is December 19 at 9 a.m.
Richard, when you’ve updated the registration totals
in the past I’ve always recalculated it by totaling
only those states that each National party is on the
ballot. I’ve felt that this is a more accurate measure
of how well developed their organization & message is
throughout the states. Something that would be of help
is if you could list when the party affiliate became
ballot qualified. After all, a brand new party should
be expected to have fewer members than one thats been
ballot qualified for 15 or more years.
That will all be in the Dec. 1 2008 paper issue as well, along with the new numbers of signatures needed for 2010, and the presidential vote by state.
The Democan and Republicrats as the Establishment Duopoly are ‘Resident Evil’…..
“Does that mean that the LACP is within about 300 registrations of meeting the threshold needed to become a recognized party? Will the La. SOS accept those variations?”
No. The SoS will not accept all of those variations. But the LACP has purchased the voter list for all of those names (as well as some lesser ones like the America First Party and Conservative Party) and is eventually going to do a mailing to them.
Richard, I commend you for your hard work on tabulating this list, but you will have some challenges. For example, in West Virginia, voters may only register as Republican, Democrat, Mountain (Green affiliate), No Party Specified (nonpartisan – formerly independent), and Other.
When a voter selects the “Other” box on his registration, he can then write anything he wants on the line next to it. We have voters registered as the “24-7″(party), “all night”(party), “wild”(party), Libratarian, Librarian, liberation, Liberty, Constitute, Constitutional, Con, etc.
Call 1-800-SOS-VOTE for the elections division.
Trent,
Louisiana, Florida, and North Carolina are the only ex-Confederate states that register voters by party.
Louisiana has had party registration since 1916. It would be interesting to read about the legislature’s debate on that issue. Do you know anything about the history of that?
Steve,
Uhhhhhhh.No.
Im not quite that scholarly. Wouldn’t even know where to START looking for that.
Richard, have you tried tallying the numbers of primary voters for each party, in states that have primaries but do not have partisan registration? That would still leave a large proportion of independents, but it would give a gauge of relative party strength in those states.
In Pennsylvania we have almost as many voters still registered as “Patriot” (the name was changed to Reform in 1995) as we have registered “Reform”. There is still a scattering registed as “Pennsylvanians For Perot” from 1992.
Unfortunately, there are always question marks in the charts on registration. Jeff Becker is correct that some West Virginians are registered in the Constitution Party, and some in the Libertarian Party, but we don’t know how many. All the states with partisan registration have a blank line on the voter registration form (except Iowa and Kansas and New Jersey). So voters are free to register any way they wish, but that doesn’t mean the state will tell us how many people there are in certain parties.
We can’t complain too much about New Jersey and Iowa not having a blank line on the form, since both states do print the names of certain unqualified parties on the form. That was after lawsuits were filed against both states. Kansas has never been sued over this, but it certainly ought to be sued, since Kansas is in the 10th circuit and the 10th circuit already ruled that states can’t restrict registration into just the qualified parties.
Richard,
I am not a lawyer, but does this mean that only states in the 10th circuit have to abide by this ruling? I would think that federal candidates of minor parties would extend this ruling to all other states.
“Kansas is in the 10th circuit and the 10th circuit already ruled that states can’t restrict registration into just the qualified parties.”
LMK as I’d certainly like to at least read it. Do you have a URL? If so please post/email me. Thanks.
Trent #19: Don’t you live in Baton Rouge? Anyone interested in this issue could likely find old newspapers on microfilm at the main public library.
The state department of archives and history (or whatever it’s called) would definitely have these newspapers on microfilm.