Last month, Libertarian Party nominee Damien Ober polled 5,915 votes for “Shadow” U.S. Senator. The District of Columbia holds elections for U.S. Senate, and U.S. House, even though Congress does not recognize the winners of these elections (the election for U.S. House is separate from the election for Delegate to the U.S. House). Although 5,915 votes is only 2.63%, that is the highest vote total that any Libertarian nominee for partisan office in D.C. has ever polled.
Qualified parties in D.C. are those that poll 7,500 votes for any partisan office. The only qualified parties in D.C. history, besides the Democratic and Republican Parties, have been the Statehood Green Party (formerly the D.C. Statehood Party), the Umoja Party, the Socialist Workers Party, and the U.S. Labor Party.
Previous D.C. Libertarian vote totals (other than for president) have been 3,612 for City Council-at-Large in 1988, 980 for Mayor in 1990, and 4,594 for Delegate to the U.S. House in 2000. For president, no Libertarian has ever polled more than 1,104 votes in D.C. Because the D.C. Libertarian Party has never polled 7,500 votes for any office, it has never been a qualified party.
The U.S. Senate shadow election this year had four candidates. The other three were Democrat Paul Strauss, 183,519 votes; Republican Nelson Rimensynder, 18,601 votes; Statehood Green Keith Ware, 16,881 votes.
Libertarians tried to get Dick Heller on the ballot this year for Delegate to U.S. House. His petition failed, and Bob Barr’s petition also failed. If Heller had qualified, he probably would have received 7,500 votes, since the Delegate’s race had no Republican in the race. The vote totals this year for Delegate are Eleanor Holmes Norton, Democrat, 228,376 votes; Statehood Green, Maude Louise Hills, 16,693 votes.
Dick Heller decided against a run for office before the filing date. Because of the dispersed grassroots effort collecting signatures for his race, no one knows how many signatures were collected but not returned to me after we got word out we couldn’t use them.
The ballot petitioning for Barr failed mostly because we listened to their campaign staffers instead of following our own plans (which got Damien on the ballot).
Damien Ober was a great candidate who polled amazingly well in a crowded race.
What are the petitioning rules like in DC and could Congress do anything about it?
Also, has anyone bothered to poll DC residents on the idea of becoming a part of another State, as has been proposed?
DC requires independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, to submit a petition of 3,000 signatures. However presidential candidates need more signatures…they need 1% of the number of registered voters, which was 3,883 signatures this year. Also, no petitioning can begin until July 1 of an election year. Petitions are due in mid-August.