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.

The Missouri Green Party needed 2% in any statewide race to keep qualified status. Its best showing is for Lieutenant Governor, where the preliminary results show that it has 1.995%. Using the tentative totals, it needs 57,828 votes for that office and has 57,676.

The Missouri Libertarian Party met the vote test.

Maryland now has four qualified parties, one fewer than before the election. The Green Party and the No Labels Party continue to be qualified, but the Libertarian Party went off the ballot for failing to poll 1% for President.

The Green Party and the No Labels Party each petitioned in 2024, and when a party petitions in Maryland, it gets the next two elections. The Green Party polled over 1% of the vote for president this year anyway, so it qualified two ways. But when a party polls 1% for President or Governor, it only gets one more election, so the Green Party’s accomplishment of getting over 1% for Jill Stein didn’t actually make a difference.

Under Maryland precedent, if a qualified party doesn’t file any reports, the State Board of Elections may remove it from qualified status. Ralph Nader’s Independent Party of 2008 was removed for that reason. So it is possible that No Labels will get removed from the ballot, but so far it is still there.