Virgil Goode polled more votes in seven states than any previous Constitution Party presidential nominee. Those states are Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming.
The Constitution Party has never placed its presidential nominee on the ballot in North Carolina, but Goode’s write-in total of 619 is higher than any previous write-in total for the party’s presidential nominee in that state. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for the North Carolina figure.
The Green Party of Georgia, and the Constitution Party of Georgia, challenged Georgia’s ballot access procedures for presidential candidates on May 25, 2012. U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Story dismissed the case on July 17, without even waiting for the state to answer the Complaint. He said the case couldn’t possibly win because the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1971 in Jenness v Fortson foreclosed the issue.
Jenness v Fortson did not concern presidential ballot access, so the parties asked for reconsideration on July 24. It has now been more than four months and Judge Story has not acted on the request for reconsideration. It is rare for requests for reconsideration to be pending for more than a month.
The case is Green Party of Georgia v Kemp, northern district, 1:12-cv-1822.
The Phoenix New Times has this article about the results of the November 2012 election for Arizona State House, 16th district. The district covers Mesa and Apache Junction. Each Arizona House district elects two representatives. The returns are: Doug Coleman (Republican) 41,063; Kelly Townsend (Republican) 40,720; Matthew Cerra (Democrat) 24,942; Bill Maher (Green) 9,094.
The reporter speculates on whether Bill Maher got a relatively big vote because voters confused him with the famous comedian and movie-maker Bill Maher. However, the real reason the Green Party candidate got so many votes is that the Democrats only ran one nominee in this district, although they were free to have run two.
On November 26, the Michigan Secretary of State released official election results, including write-in totals for President. Gary Johnson was credited with 7,774 write-ins, the highest number of write-ins ever recorded in Michigan for a presidential candidate in November. The previous record had been Ralph Nader in 1996, who was credited with 2,322 in Michigan.
Michigan did not permit write-ins for president in the general election until 1964, when the Prohibition Party won a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court on that subject.
The other write-ins presidential candidates in Michigan received this number of write-ins: Stewart Alexander, Socialist, 89; Jerry White, Socialist Equality, 68; Tom Hoefling, American’s Independent Party, 42. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this information.
The Justice Party is planning a national convention, to be held February 22-24, 2013, in or near Oakland, California. The party will work on bylaws and election of party officers, among other tasks.
