New York Now Has Eight Qualified Parties

Posted on by November 5, 2014
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New York defines a qualified party as a group that polls at least 50,000 votes for Governor. Before the November 2014 election, the qualified parties were: Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Working Families, Independence, and Green.

As a result of the recent election, the two parties organized by major party nominees for Governor, to give themselves another line on the ballot, also each got over 50,000 votes. The six older parties all retained their qualified status. The two new parties are the Women’s Equality Party, which backed Democrat Andrew Cuomo, and the Stop Common Core Party, which backed Republican Rob Astorino. Each of them polled more than 50,000, but not much more.

The Conservative Party got more than 210,000 votes for the Republican nominee, and it will retain the third line on the ballot. The Green Party received more than 165,000 votes for its own nominee, and it will be on the fourth line. The Working Families Party polled over 108,000 and will be on the fifth line. No news story mentions the Independence Party’s vote total, except to say that it polled less than the Working Families Party’s total, but did poll enough votes to retain its qualified status. UPDATE: here are unofficial results from the New York State Board of Elections web page, for Governor only. Thanks to UncoveredPolitics for the link.

Constitution and Libertarian Parties Now Entitled to their own Primaries in Wyoming

Posted on by November 5, 2014
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Wyoming law says parties that poll 2% for certain offices are ballot-qualified by nominate by convention. But if they poll 10%, they nominate by primary. Both the Constitution and Libertarian Parties polled over 10% for Secretary of State of Wyoming, so each will have a primary in 2016. No Democrat ran for Secretary of State. Here is a link to Wyoming Secretary of State election returns.

In the governor’s race in Wyoming, the “other” vote was 13.3%: independent candidate Don Wills got 5.81%; write-in candidate Taylor Hearns got 5.09%; and the Libertarian nominee got 2.39%.

Green and Libertarian Parties Regain Qualified Status in Wisconsin

Posted on by November 5, 2014
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The Green Party and the Libertarian Party each have regained qualified status in Wisconsin, based on their showings for Treasurer. See this story. Parties need 1% for any statewide race for recognition. The only statewide Constitution Party nominee, Andrew Zuelke, also running for Treasurer, has 1% of the vote, according to the story. There are no election returns on the state’s elections office web page, so it will be some time before it is known if the Constitution Party nominee polled enough votes. The newspaper story rounds off, of course, so we can’t know if Zuelke polled slightly under, or slightly over, 1%.

The Libertarian Party and the Green Party went off the Wisconsin ballot after the 2010 election, when neither received as much as 1% for any statewide race.