Fairvote has this summary of how voters in each state voted, on statewide ballot measures affecting election law.
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On November 4, 2014, the Hawaii Libertarian Party’s nominees for State Senate, together, polled 7,862. The party had five nominees, and there were eleven districts voting for State Senate. The law passed in 1999 provided for the first time that a party could meet the vote test if it did well enough for its legislative candidates, and requires all of the party’s nominees for State Senate to poll 4% of the total cast for State Senate. That means the party needed 5,572 votes in 2014 for its State Senate candidates, a requirement which it exceeded.
The law also permits a party to pass the vote test if it polled 10% for a statewide office, or 4% of all the votes cast for State House, or 2% of all the votes cast for both houses of the legislature combined. A 1980 Attorney General ruling says that blank votes should be excluded from the denominator, when these percentages are calculated.
The Independent Party polled over 10% for Governor, so it also passed the vote test. The Green Party was not required to meet the vote test because the law also gives automatic status, for ten years, to any party that appeared on the ballot in at least three elections in a row. The Green Party is currently in its ten years of automatic status. Here is a link to the State Elections Office web page, showing 2014 election returns.
The Minnesota Independence Party, which has been ballot-qualified starting in 1994, appears likely to lose its qualified status. Here is a link to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s web page, showing election returns. The party needed to poll 5% for one of the statewide races this year, because it did not poll as much as 5% for any statewide race in 2012. Its strongest statewide nominee, Bob Helland for Secretary of State, is at 4.91%.
No other minor party polled 5% for any statewide race either. Assuming the Independence Party goes off the ballot, it may be possible to persuade the Minnesota legislature to lower the vote test. The median vote test for the 50 states is 2%, and Minnesota has a long tradition of tolerance toward minor parties. Even though Minnesota requires 5% for qualified party status for ballot access purposes, for purposes of obtaining public funding, the vote test is 1%.
Here is a link to the North Dakota Secretary of State’s page. All three Libertarian Party nominees have over 5% of the vote, and all precincts are counted. The party needed 5% for Secretary of State to retain its qualified status for 2016. This is the first time a minor party has met the North Dakota vote test since 1996, when the Reform Party polled 12.20% for President.
In Maryland, the Libertarian nominee received 1.45% of the vote, enough for the party to keep its qualified status in 2016. This is the first time any minor party has met the Maryland vote test since the current law was passed in 1998. The vote test only applies to President and Governor. Although the Reform Party got 6.5% for President in 1996, at that time the vote test was 10%. In 1998 it was lowered to 1%. Here is a link to the Maryland State Board of Elections web page for election returns. Here is a link to the Libertarian Party’s election night election returns news.
The Green Party nominee for Ohio governor, Anita Rios, polled 3.3%. This is enough to give the Green Party qualified status for 2016 and 2018. This is the first time any minor party has polled enough votes to meet the Ohio statutory deadline for ongoing status since 1996, when the Reform Party polled over 5% for President and was thus on the 1998 ballot automatically.
The current Ohio retention law requires 2% for 2014 only, and meeting the requirement is good for four years. However, starting in 2018, the vote test is 3%, not 2%, owing to the strange wording of SB 193 passed in late 2013.
In Massachusetts, several statewide nominees polled 4%, in excess of the 3% required for party status. See GreenPartyWatch for many election returns for all parties at this link.