On January 26, Rocky De La Fuente filed this response in the U.S. Supreme Court in De La Fuente v Simon, 20-612. The issue is the state law that gives political parties complete control over which candidates may appear on their presidential primary ballots. The Minnesota Republican Party in 2020 kept all candidates except President Donald Trump off its presidential primary ballot.
The Supreme Court will consider whether to hear this case at its conference of February 19.
As of January 31, 2021, here are registration totals for South Dakota: Republican 279,921; Democratic 158,697; Libertarian 2,429; Constitution 438; independent and miscellaneous 141,237. Percentages are: Republican 48.04%; Democratic 27.23%; Libertarian .42%; Constitution .08%; independent and miscellaneous 24.24%.
On October 12, 2020, the percentages were: Republican 48.02%; Democratic 27.58%; Libertarian .39%; Constitution .06%; independent and miscellaneous 23.95%.
The Constitution Party is not ballot-qualified, but South Dakota lets parties that lose their qualified status keep and expand their registration.
On January 28, the New Mexico House Committee on State Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs passed HB 79. It allows independent voters to choose one of the partisan primary ballots, on primary day. Now the bill goes to the House Judiciary Committee.
The Federal Election Commission has tallied the vote for president by state, for every candidate who was on the ballot in at least one state. Later this on-line chart will be published in a book, Federal Elections 2020. That book, which is free on request from the FEC, will also have the vote for congress. See it here.
These returns still aren’t absolutely final. Pennsylvania still doesn’t have final results because it is still waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on whether certain late-arriving postal ballots should be counted. Kansas and Maine still haven’t released the write-in totals for declared write-in presidential candidates. Also, of course, there are other presidential candidates who were not on the ballot in any state, but who still got valid write-in votes because they filed as declared write-in candidates in certain states, and therefore did get some votes tallied. It was simply too much for the FEC to include those candidates.
But the FEC chart is certainly useful at this time. For example, the Libertarian Party only retained its ballot-qualified status in North Carolina because its presidential nominee, Jo Jorgensen, was on the ballot in at least 35 states. In reality, she was on the ballot in all states, but it is not so simple to “prove” this. But the FEC chart, because it is published by a government agency, showing that she was on in all ballots, is proof. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On February 1, the West Virginis Secretary of State posted registration data as of January 31, 2021, on his website. See it here. The website does not include the data for unqualified parties, but the office by e-mail says the Independent Party has 38,300 registrants, and the Constitution Party has 174.
Percentages are: Democratic 36.68%; Republican 36.49%; Independent Party 3.07%; Libertarian .72%; Green .19%; Constitution .01%; independent and miscellaneous 22.84%.
On September 30, the percentages were: Democratic 37.48%; Republican 35.69%; Libertarian .67%; Green .19%; Constitution .01%; independent and miscellaneous 25.95%. Thanks to Jeff Becker for the totals for the Independent Party and the Constitution Party.
It seems likely the Independent Party will sue to get recognized, because its gubernatorial nominee in 2020 received over 1% of the vote, even though they were write-in votes.
