At the November 6 election, voters in the 31st U.S. House district cast 207,095 votes for President. But those same voters only cast 161,219 votes for U.S. House, which means that 22.2% of the voters in that district chose to abstain from voting for U.S. House. This is undoubtedly because the ballot only listed two Republicans for U.S. House, and did not permit write-ins. So, many voters in that district disliked both candidates, and therefore abstained.

There are always some voters who cast a vote for President and then fail to vote for U.S. House. For example, in 2008, in California, 8.6% of the voters who voted for President did not vote for U.S. House. Obviously, though, there is a significant difference between 22.2% and 8.6%.

The vote in November 2012 for President inside the 31st district was: Obama 118,043; Romney 83,822; Johnson 2,027; Barr 822; Stein 807; Hoefling 721; various write-ins for President 853. The vote for U.S. House for the two Republicans was: Gary Miller 88,964; Bob Dutton 72,255. The 31st district is entirely in San Bernardino County.

On May 25, 2012, a U.S. District Court struck down Montana’s March petition deadline for independent candidates (other than presidential independents) to get on the ballot. The state did not appeal.

The deadline for Montana legislators to submit bill ideas to the bill-drafting office has now passed, and no legislator has introduced a bill to replace the old, void deadline. However, Montana legislators are permitted to introduce two bills beyond this deadline, so it is still possible a bill on this subject will be introduced in 2013.

The Green Party nominee for U.S. House who received the highest percentage in the nation (when districts are excluded that did not have both a Democrat and a Republican also in the race) in 2012 was Ursula Rozum. She was the Green Party nominee in New York’s 24th district, centered on Syracuse.

She got a great deal of publicity when she received campaign contributions from a wealthy donor who had also given hundreds of thousands of dollars in independent expenditures to various Republicans. She responded by giving those contributions to charity, instead of using them to advance her own candidacy. She also received publicity because she performed well in a televised debate with her major party opponents. She received 7.74% of the vote, or 22,670 votes. The Democratic nominee won the race in that district. See this story about the final election returns.

Two other Green Party U.S. House candidates, both in Illinois, also did well. Nancy Wade, in the 5th district near Chicago, received 5.68% (15,359 votes) and Paula Bradshaw, in the 12th district in southwest Illinois, received 5.61% (17,045 votes). Because each received more than 5% of the vote, the Green Party is ballot-qualified for 2014 in just those two particular districts, but not the remainder of the state.

Among U.S. House candidates who had only one major party opponent, the highest percentage for any Green was Rebekah Kennedy, who received 16.01% (39,318 votes) in the Arkansas 3rd district, running against a Republican and a Libertarian.