The New Hampshire Libertarian Party had a contested primary on September 11 for Governor and U.S. House, 2nd district. Not all towns have reported, but so far, the gubernatorial totals are: Jilletta Jarvis 557; Aaron Day 477. For U.S. House, 2nd district, the results so far are: Justin O’Donnell 428; Tom Alciere 136. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
Some states, including Illinois, do not permit voters to sign a general election petition for more than one candidate for the same office. Eric Zorn, op-ed writer for the Chicago Tribune, here says the law should be amended to let voters sign for multiple candidates for the same office. Thanks to Bill Redpath for the link.
This Cleveland Plain Dealer article says that the Ohio Debate Commission plans to host a gubernatorial debate on October 8, and that one of the affiliates of the Ohio Debate Commission is the City Club, which is a nonprofit organization. The Libertarian Party argues that the City Club cannot be involved in hosting a debate that does not include all four gubernatorial candidates. The four are the nominees of the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Green Party nominees.
On September 11, a Suffolk/Reno Gazette Journal Poll for Nevada was released. The poll included all ballot-listed candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate. See the results here. Question six has the U.S. Senate results, and question nine as the gubernatorial results. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
On September 11, the Arizona Secretary of State released the official tally of votes from the August 28 primaries. This is the first knowledge anyone has had of the write-ins in the primaries. Four parties held primaries: Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Green. Neither of the last two parties had any candidates’ names printed on their primary ballots for any federal or state office. Instead, these parties attempted to nominate via write-ins in the primaries.
Arizona law on the minimum number of write-ins is highly discriminatory. If a party has earned qualified status at either this election, or the preceding election, then it can nominate with just one write-in vote, assuming the write-in candidate has no opponent in the primary. But if the party has been continuously qualified for five years or more previously, then it must have thousands of write-ins to nominate for statewide office, and hundreds to nominate for district office.
Thus, the Green Party was permitted to nominate for U.S. Senate. Its sole candidate for that office, Angela Green, received 389 write-ins. But the sole Libertarian write-in candidate in the Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate, Adam Kokesh, was not deemed nominated, even though he polled 2,159 write-ins. Similar results occurred for other offices as well. See the results here. Thanks to Richard Grayson for the link.
A Libertarian Party lawsuit against the Arizona primary ballot access laws for continuously qualified minor parties is pending in the Ninth Circuit. All the briefs have been submitted, but there is no date yet for the oral argument. The U.S. District Court had upheld the law.
