Pennsylvania law does not allow a party to be on the ballot automatically for all partisan offices unless it has voter registration of 15% of the statewide total. Obviously only the Democratic and Republican Parties meet this definition.

However, Pennsylvania allows groups to be on the ballot automatically in special elections if they meet the state’s definition of a “political party”, which is a group that had a statewide nominee whose vote total equals 2% of the highest winning statewide candidate’s vote. Also, such groups are listed as a choice on the voter registration form.

The Libertarian Party polled enough votes for each of the three statewide state offices to meet the definition. Its best showing was Auditor, with 119,375 votes. None of the other groups on the ballot met the vote test, although the Green Party is fairly close for Attorney General. The test requires 68,873 votes, and Richard Weiss, Green for Attorney General, has 64,775.

The Constitution, Forward, and American Solidarity Parties did not come close to meeting the vote test.