Nevada Libertarian Party Keeps its Qualified Status

The Nevada Libertarian Party retained its qualified status because it ran Jesse Walsh for County Commission, Clark County, Seat B. That is a partisan office. It also kept it in the U.S. Senate race, with 1.3%.

The law says the vote test for qualified status is 1% (for any partisan nominee, not just statewide nominees) of the total statewide vote for U.S. House.

Walsh was in a two-person race with a Democrat and polled 47,275, 37.14% of the total for that race. The vote test requires at least 12,393 votes for any party nominee.

New Mexico Green Party May Have Lost Qualified Status by 53 Votes

New Mexico defines a qualified party as a group that polls .5% for president or Governor. Unofficial returns show the Green Party has .494% for President, 53 votes short. But that may change when the results are final.

The other minor parties lost qualified status. They were the Libertarian, Socialism & Liberation, and Free New Mexico Parties.

Ranked Choice Voting Wins Twice in Illinois on Tuesday

RCV for municipal elections in Oak Park passed with a 79% Yes vote. Evanston passed an RCV initiative in 2023, so Oak Park is the second city in Illinois to adopt RCV for municipal elections. This was placed on the ballot through a signature gathering effort.

Also on Tuesday, Peoria Township had an advisory referendum in which voters got to say if they would like RCV statewide. That received a 67% Yes vote.

Perhaps adoption of RCV in Illinois would be a path to better ballot access laws in Illinois, which are among the toughest in the nation. In 142 elections for the Illinois House and Illinois Senate yesterday, there were zero minor party candidates and only one independent candidate on the ballot. He was Dr. David Gill, who received 12,043 votes, or 23.3%, in a two-way race against incumbent Republican William Hauter.

In the 17 US House elections in Illinois on Tuesday, the only minor party or independent candidate on the ballot was Edward Hershey of the Working Class Party, who received 9,828 votes (with 94% reported), for 5.1% of the vote in a three-way race.

Other than President/Vice President, there was no statewide election in Illinois on Tuesday.

Congratulations and thanks to FairVote Illinois for the heads up!