Nevada Libertarians Likely to Retain Qualified Status Due to No Democratic Party Nominee in US House Race in Northern Nevada

Posted on by September 24, 2024
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The Nevada law on party retention is: (1) either the party must hold 1% of the registration; or (2) it must poll for any of its nominees a number of votes that equals 1% of the total vote cast in the state for US House.

There is no Democratic nominee this year in the U.S. House, second district, the northern Nevada district. Therefore, the Libertarian nominee in that district is overwhelmingly likely to poll enough votes to keep the party on the ballot. Because Nevada has four districts, the Libertarian nominee needs approximately 4% of the vote in his race, because that is approximately 1% of the entire state’s vote for US House.

The Libertarian Party also has statewide candidates for President and U.S. Senate, but it not a safe bet that either will poll as much as 1%. In 2022, the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate only polled .64%.

Libertarian registration in Nevada, as of September 1, was only .81%. The other ballot-qualified third party, the Constitution Party affiliate which is called the Independent American Party, doesn’t need to worry about the vote test because its registration is 4.46%.

Massachusetts Republican Party Only Has Two Nominees for U.S. House, Out of Nine Seats

Posted on by September 24, 2024
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Massachusetts has nine U.S. House seats. In seven of them, no Republican is on the ballot. Here is the candidate list.

Massachusetts has the most severe ballot access law for primary candidates, for U.S. House, in the nation. The law requires 2,000 signatures, and only party members and independent voters can sign.

It is common for Republicans to fail to run in many Massachusetts elections for U.S. House, but 2024 is the first time in history that the Republican Party only has two nominees for U.S. House in Massachusetts.

No Labels Candidate for Washington Secretary of State Polled 7.3% in August 2024 Primary

Posted on by September 24, 2024
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At the August 6, 2024 Washington state primary, Damond Townsend ran for Secretary of State with the ballot label “No Labels.” He ran against two Democrats and one Republican. He placed fourth, with 96,586 votes, 7.31%.

Because of the Washington top-two system, he won’t be on the ballot in November. But under Washington state’s old pre-top-two law, he would have been on the ballot in November. The old law said a party gained qualified status by polling 5% for any statewide race. It seems very likely that under the old law, he would have polled at least 5%, and the No Labels Party would have become ballot-qualified.

The No Labels organization, which was fiercely opposed to anyone running for any office other than President, did not take any steps to interfere with Townsend’s ballot label.

No other organized minor party ran any candidates in the Washington 2024 primary for statewide office, except that the Libertarian and Green Parties had candidates for Governor, and the Socialist Workers Party had a candidate for U.S. Senate. None of them got as much as 1%. No organized minor party had any candidates for U.S. House, except for one Green in the Second District.

New Mexico Lets Two Parties Change Their Names

Posted on by September 24, 2024
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New Mexico is one of the states that has always allowed qualified parties to change their names. Recently the New Mexico Secretary of State allowed the Libertarian Party to change its name to the Liberal Party USA. Then, shortly afterwards, she allowed the Free New Mexico Party to change its name to the Libertarian Party.

The new labels are reflected on the November 2024 ballot.