It is likely that the Libertarian Party will have at least one nominee for a federal or state office on the ballot in all fifty states in November 2018, for the first time in a midterm year.

In a few states, the party has no one on the ballot for statewide office. But in all those states, it will have at least one legislative or U.S. House candidate on the ballot. Those states are Alabama, where a Libertarian has qualified for a seat in the state house; California, where the party has a few candidates on the ballot for Assembly; Florida, where the party’s gubernatorial nominee withdrew for health reasons but where the party will have a few legislative candidates; Kentucky, where there are no statewide races up but where the party will have a few candidates for U.S. House; Maine, where the party has a state house candidate; Mississippi, where the only statewide race is U.S. Senate, and the party did not contest that, but it does have some candidates for U.S. House; and Washington, where the party has a few legislative candidates.

It is not yet determined whether the Louisiana, Rhode Island and Vermont Libertarian Parties will have any candidates for statewide office, but they will have some legislative candidates. The only statewide office up in Louisiana is a special election for Secretary of State.

In order for the prediction in this post to come true, it is necessary that the party’s statewide petitions succeed in Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Virginia. It is likely that each of these petitions will succeed.

The word “Libertarian” will be on the ballot for all the party’s candidates, except in Tennessee, where the Libertarians will have the label “independent.”

In 2014, there were no Libertarians on the ballot for any federal or state office in Alabama, Maine, or New Mexico. Ever since the U.S. has had 50 states, starting in 1959, there has never before been any third party that had a candidate for federal or state office in the ballot in all 50 states in a midterm year.

On June 11, independent gubernatorial candidate Positive Nelson sued the U.S. Virgin Islands elections department to require that his name be put on the November 2018 ballot. The U.S. Virgin Islands requires candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor to run as a team. Nelson’s running mate is Gary Udhwani. The elections office invalidated the Nelson-Udhwani petition because it says Udhwani is not a registered voter.

The petition required 100 signatures, and Udhwani circulated many of the petition sheets. The elections office says circulators must be registered voters, and because Udhwani is not a registered voter, his petition sheets are invalid. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v American Constitutional Law Foundation that governments cannot require petitioners to be registered voters.

The elections office also says that it suspects that some of the petitions were circulated before Nelson had chosen Udhwani, and that after Udhwani was chosen, the petitions were altered to add his name as the Lieutenant Governor running mate. The elections office also argues that the lawsuit does not belong in federal court. The lawsuit is Nelson v Fawkes, 1:18cv-17.

The plaintiffs argue that when the elections office removed Udhwani from the list of registered voters, it had a duty to first notify him that he was about to be disqualified. The elections office replies that their records show that Udhwani might have been removed decades ago, and the elections office has no records that far back to show whether he was notified or not.