Greg Kaza has calculated the number of votes cast for Libertarian Party nominees for U.S. House. With some ballots still uncounted, the national total is 1,671,091, the highest in the party’s history.

In both 2014 and 2016, the party had 122 nominees. The 2014 national total had been 965,494.

The party’s previous highest vote total for U.S. House had been the 2000 figure of 1,610,292. However in 2000, the party had more than twice as many nominees. In 2000 it had 255 nominees. The party has not had as many nominees in recent years as it had in the last decade. This is partly because in the past, the party’s national director, Ron Crickenberger, was extremely energetic and effective in recruiting congressional candidates, and he is no longer living. Another reason for the decline in the number of candidates is the existence of top-two systems in California and Washington, which have kept all Libertarian congressional nominees off the ballot since the system was implemented. Thanks to Greg Kaza for this information. The December 1,, 2016 BAN will have a chart showing the vote for all parties, for all states, for U.S. House.

Although some national media figures have been saying they believe minor party candidates hurt Hillary Clinton, this article says many Colorado observers of politics believe that Colorado went for Clinton only because of the Gary Johnson campaign.

The village of Broadview, Illinois, held an election on April 9, 2003, for village offices. An independent candidate for Village President, Princess Dempsey, sued the Village Clerk after the election because the Village Clerk, the evening before the election, made a telephone “robocall” recording, and then used the town’s reverse-911 system to phone every voter. The Clerk’s robocall identified herself as an election official, and said that the plaintiff was not a legitimate candidate, that she had been removed from the ballot, and that if the voter voted for Dempsey the vote would be a “lost vote.”

On November 10, 2016, the Illinois State Appellate Court, First District, ruled that the candidate’s lawsuit has merit and that the lower state court (which had dismissed the lawsuit) should re-hear the case. The State Appellate Court said it appears the clerk had violated the candidate’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Here is the 24-page decision. It says the clerk’s action was state action and the clerk may be personally liable for damages.

The Clerk had acted in a hostile manner even before she made the robocall. When the candidate submitted her ballot access petition, the clerk took the petition home with her and showed it to one of the other candidates for the same office. The other candidate challenged the petition, and the Village Electoral Board ruled the petition insufficient. The clerk was on the Board and voted to disqualify the petition. The candidate then went to the lower court, which put the candidate back on the ballot. The vote for Village President was: Judy Brown-Marino, Better Broadview Party, 350 votes; Sherman Jones, Broadview First Party, 925 votes; Norlander Young, Democrat, 249 votes; and the plaintiff, an independent candidate, 131 votes.