Portland, Maine, already used ranked choice voting for Mayor. An initiative petition to use it for city council races appears to have fallen short by a few hundred signatures, although that determination is mired in controversy. See this story.
On August 23, David Koch, who was the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1980, died. See this New York Times story. He was 79, and died of prostate cancer, the same disease that killed David Bergland (the 1984 Libertarian nominee) earlier this year.
Back in 1980, when the Libertarian Party nominated Koch, ballot access for president was more difficult than it is today. Yet the Libertarian Party national ticket got on the ballot in all states plus D.C. in 1980. That was the first time any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, had ever got on the ballot in all jurisdictions in the entire history of government-printed ballots, since 1892. That feat was possible only because David Koch was willing to spend the money to pay for ballot access petitioning.
George Wallace in 1968 had appeared on the ballot of all 50 states, but he did not qualify in the District of Columbia, which at the time required a petition of 5% of the registered voters. Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party in 1948 failed to get on the ballot in Illinois, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Robert La Follette of the Progressive Party in 1924 failed to get on the ballot in Louisiana. Theodore Roosevelt of the Progressive Party in 1912 failed to get on in Oklahoma. Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party, in his five runs for president, never got on a government-printed ballot in North Carolina (although North Carolina back then accepted privately-printed ballots, so Debs did receive votes in North Carolina).
On August 22, the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and America’s Party filed this brief in the Texas ballot access case, Miller v Doe, w.d., 1:19cv-700. The brief is in response to the state’s earlier brief, asking that this case be dismissed without further proceedings. The lawsuit challenges virtually every Texas ballot access requirement that applies to newly-qualifying parties, to parties that are already on the ballot but which nominate by convention, and to independent candidates.
This Daily Beast interview with former U.S. Senator and former Governor Lincoln Chafee says he would be open to being the Libertarian Party presidential nominee.
On August 19, the Maine legislature was called in for a one-day special session, to be held Monday, August 26. Proponents of ranked choice voting hope that on that day, LD 1083 will pass the State Senate. It has already passed the House. It provides for ranked choice voting for president. Maine currently has ranked choice voting for congress, but not president.
