Two independents have just been elected to the Maine State House of Representatives. They are Kent Ashley in the 82nd district and Owen Casas in the 94th district. Neither was an incumbent. Both were in two-person races. Ackley defeated a Republican, and Casas defeated a Democrat.

Four independents had been elected to the Maine House in 2014, but all four declined to run for re-election. The new Maine House will consist of 77 Democrats, 72 Republicans, and the two independents. The Portland Press-Herald newspaper has a story that erroneously says two Libertarians were elected to the State House. The newspaper story should have said two independents were elected.

Here is a link to the Vermont presidential election results, which are not final. They show that 6.9% of the voters cast a write-in vote, and 7.3% of the voters voted for a minor party or independent candidate who was listed on the ballot. Probably the vast majority of the write-ins are for Bernie Sanders. The Vermont Secretary of State will tally them in the near future. Thanks to Austin Cassidy for the link.

Never before have the voters of any state cast as much as 3% of their vote to any particular write-in candidate for President in a general election. The previous record had been the Ralph Nader write-in in 2000 in Idaho. He got 2.45% of the vote.

The latest Nevada voter registration data is here. The Secretary of State’s web page does not include the Green Party, but the ofice has said that there are now 4,306 registered Greens. The percentages are: Democratic 39.44%; Republican 33.37%; Independent American (Constitution) 4.32%; Libertarian .91%; Green .29%; independent and miscellaneous 21.66%.

In January 2016 the percentages had been: Democratic 39.15%; Republican 35.16%; Independent American 4.65%; Libertarian .81%; Green .19%; independent and miscellaneous 20.05%.