Broward County, Florida Ballot Put Congressional Elections in Inconspicuous Spot and Caused 4% of the Voters to Skip Them

Posted on by November 10, 2018
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Florida general election ballots in midterm years put congressional races at the beginning of the ballot. This year, Broward County designed a ballot in which the left-most column had instructions for voting at the top of that column. Those instructions are quite wordy and take up a great deal of space. They are printed first in English, then in Spanish, and underneath that, in Creole. At the very bottom of that left-most column, the ballot then lists U.S. Senate, followed by U.S. House.

At the top of the middle column is the Governor’s race, followed by the other statewide state offices.

Almost 4% of the people who cast a ballot did not see the U.S. Senate and U.S. House races, due to their position underneath the voting instructions. This article has a copy of the ballot. One must scroll down to even find the two congressional offices.

Alabama Petition Requirement for 2020 Will be Over 51,416 Signatures

Posted on by November 10, 2018
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The turnout in Alabama this week was so much higher than it was in 2014, that the new statewide petition for new parties and non-presidential independent candidates is now at least 51,416 valid signatures. When the official returns are known, that number will probably be even higher.

By contrast, in 2016 and 2018, the statewide petition was 35,413. That number has increased by 45%.

The same will probably be true in other states in which the 2020 statewide petition is based on the number of votes cast in 2018, whereas the 2018 petition was based on the 2014 turnout: Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas.

Florida Will Recount Three of the Five Statewide Offices

Posted on by November 10, 2018
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Florida will recount all the ballots cast for Governor, U.S. Senator, and Agriculture Commissioner. Those are the only statewide offices that were on the ballot this week, except for Attorney General and Chief Financial Officer. See this story. Probably at no time in history has any state previously had to recount more than one statewide office in any particular election. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

Illinois State Board of Elections Says Conservative Party is a Qualified Party, for Partisan County Offices in 80 of the 102 Illinois Counties

Posted on by November 10, 2018
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The Conservative Party appeared on the Illinois ballot this week, for the jointly elected offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Preliminary election returns show it received 4.28% of the vote.

According to this story, the Illinois State Board of Elections agrees that in the 80 counties (out of 102) in which the party exceeded 5% for Governor, the Conservative Party is now ballot-qualified in those 80 counties, but only for partisan county office.

This conclusion by the Illinois Board of Elections is startling. In 2014, the Libertarian Party nominee for Governor polled over 5% of the vote in Alexander, Bond, Brown, Bureau, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton, Gallatin, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Henderson, Henry, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jersey, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Lee, Livingston, Logan, McDonough, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Menard, Mercer, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Peoria, Perry, Piatt, Pike, Pope, Pulaski, Putnam, Randolph, Richland, Saline, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Stephenson, Tazewell, Union, Vermilion, Washington, and Williamson Counties. But, as far as is known, no one thought the Libertarian Party was then ballot-qualified for partisan county offices in those 69 counties.

Large Proportion of California Voters Who Voted Left Ballots Blank for Races with Only Two Democrats

Posted on by November 10, 2018
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California has millions of votes remaining to be counted, so it isn’t easy to make observations about the final returns. But already it is obvious that a large proportion of voters cast a blank ballot for the two statewide offices with only two Democrats on the ballot.

The election returns posted on the Secretary of State’s web page change daily. As of Saturday morning, November 10, there were only 7,045,964 votes counted for U.S. Senate, and only 6,619,548 votes counted for Lieutenant Governor.

But Proposition Six, the gasoline tax measure, has 7,831,910 votes counted so far. Proposition Ten, concerning rent control, has 7,815,128. In the Governor’s race, with one Democrat and one Republican, 7,971,464 votes have been counted.

The Secretary of State’s web page does not have any data on the number of people who went to the polls, but that figure will be available when the official count is completed in early December. Thanks to Rob Richie for suggesting the subject of this blog post.