The Libertarian Party nominee for a Wyoming legislative seat, Marshall Burt, has been elected, according to Reason Magazine. The party missed electing a second legislator, Bethany Baldes, by only 32 votes. See the story.
This is the first time since 1900 that any party other than the Republican and Democratic Parties has elected a Wyoming state legislator.
According to this story, the Working Families Party of New York polled 4.5% of the presidential vote, with at least 283,000 votes. Therefore it easily met the new vote test, which requires the higher of 2% of the state presidential total or 130,000 votes.
Florida’s Amendment Three, an initiative to impose a top-two system for state office, failed to pass. It needed 60% and got 56.98%. See the Secretary of State’s election results website here.
Alabama requires a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote for a new or previously unqualified party, or a non-presidential statewide independent, to get on the ballot. No one has completed a statewide 3% Alabama petition since 2000, except that Americans Elect did the petition in 2011 but then didn’t run any candidates.
For 2020 and 2022, the petition is 51,588 signatures. The Alabama Libertarian Party has just begun to circulate that petition for the 2022 election. It is due in May 2022.
No other state requires such a high percentage of signatures for statewide non-presidential ballot access, if each state is compared using its easiest method (party or independent).
Here is a Maine sample ballot for November 2020, showing the ranked choice voting system for both President and Congress. This is the first ballot in
U.S. history to use RCV for president in a general election.
