The Constitution Party gained qualified status in West Virginia by polling over 1% of the gubernatorial vote. The Libertarian and Green Parties also polled over 1% of the gubernatorial vote, so now West Virginia has five qualified parties, the most since the beginning of government-printed ballots in 1891.
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!
Ohio Issue 1 lost on Tuesday 53.8% to 46.2%.
Here is an explanation of what Issue 1 would have done, if it had passed.
The repeal initiative is winning by a 51.0% to 49.0% vote, but, as of 9:22AM ET today, only 76% of the vote has been reported.
Here is the latest from The New York Times.
Both Maine and Nebraska have elected presidential electors from both parties. In Maine there will be three Democratic presidential electors and one Republican elector. In Nebraska there will be four Republican electors and one Democratic elector. This is because both states let each U.S. House District elect its own elector.
