Dr. Eric Ostermeier, whose blog Smart Politics tracks electoral data of all kinds, notes in this post that in 2020, the Libertarian Party received the highest percentage in its history in four gubernatorial races.
2
In most states, write-ins for president in the general election are only tallied statewide for write-in candidates who filed a declaration of candidacy. But around the nation, some county election officials go beyond the requirement of the law, and record all the write-ins. This means that there can never be a final complete total of all presidential vote returns. Anyone who has the patience to visit county election offices is likely to find tallies that don’t appear on the official state returns.
For example, Rowan County, North Caorlina made available a list of all write-ins for president, and this newspaper story has information about that. In North Carolina, Jade Simmons was the only write-in candidate who filed. Few write-in candidates file for write-in status in North Carolina, because the state requires them to also submit a petition of 500 names, but a rather early deadline.
Unlike most states that have write-in space on presidential general election ballots, New Hampshire has no procedure for a write-in candidate to file a declaration of write-in candidacy. Instead, New Hampshire simply tallies all presidential write-ins. This year the Secretary of State’s website lists everyone who got at least ten write-ins for president. Although Howie Hawkins had the most, all the others who got at least 100 were not actual candidates, but were famous Democrats and Republicans, such as Michelle Obama and Mitt Romney. See the list here. Click on the pdf for the write-ins.
Dr. Eric Ostermeier here describes the minor party U.S. Senate candidates in 2020 who set new percentage records for their respective parties. His blog Smart Politics is known for its historical election returns record-keeping. Thanks to Eric Wong for the link.
William J. Hunt, Libertarian nominee for Rhode Island State House, district 68, polled 40.53% earlier this month. The vote was 2,995 for Hunt and 4,394 for his Democratic opponent.
Hunt has good name recognition in the district, because this is the fourth time in a row he has run. In 2016 he polled 38.28%; in 2018 he got 35.57%. In a special election in March 2019, he got 28.4% in a four-way race, finishing second. The district is centered on the town of Warren.
Although independents are sometimes elected to the Rhode Island legislature, no party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has elected a legislator in Rhode Island since 1920.