On February 5, former Libertarian Party national treasurer Gary E. Johnson died at the age of 68. He lived in Austin, Texas. He almost played a significant role in the 2012 presidential election, due to the coincidence that his name was the same as 2012 presidential candidate Gary E. Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico. Johnson’s death was unexpected; he had an instantly fatal heart attack while at work.

Former Governor Johnson had been seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2011, but at the end of the year he dropped out and instead declared for the Libertarian presidential nomination. But his name remained on the March 2012 Michigan Republican presidential primary, although of course he did not campaign in that primary.

When the Libertarian national convention nominated former Governor Johnson in May 2012, the Michigan Secretary of State ruled that he could not be on the general election ballot as the Libertarian presidential nominee, because he was a “sore loser”. The Michigan Libertarian Party pondered nominating party national treasurer Johnson for president, instead of former Governor Johnson. The state would have had no basis to prevent the party from doing that, and the state could not have imposed the “sore loser” law on former Treasurer Johnson.

But, instead, the party chose to sue the state over its interpretation of the “sore loser” law, because at the time, no state had ever kept any general election presidential candidate off the November ballot on the grounds that he or she had run in another party’s presidential primary. Logically, the sore loser laws should never apply to presidential candidates, because the true candidates in November are the candidates for presidential elector, and they aren’t sore losers. Unfortunately, against all precedent, the Michigan Secretary of State won the lawsuit, and no one named Gary Johnson appeared on the November 2012 ballot. Michigan did tally write-ins for Gary Johnson. Michigan and Oklahoma were the only states in which former Governor Johnson did not appear on the ballot in 2012.