The Socialist Workers Party nominee for U.S. House in Iowa’s 3rd district, David Rosenfeld, polled 6,286 votes, 1.63% of the total. The district covers southwest Iowa and includes Des Moines. The race in this district between the two major parties was hard fought, with two incumbents running against each other due to redistricting and reapportionment. Republican Tom Latham received 202,000, and Democrat Leonard Boswell received 168,632. An independent candidate, Scott Batcher, polled 9,352.

Rosenfeld received more votes for U.S. House than James Harris, the SWP’s presidential nominee, received in the nation. Harris was on the ballot in six states and polled 4,115 votes, the lowest presidential vote total in the party’s history. The SWP has been running presidential candidates in all elections 1948 through the present.

The SWP also did well in 2010 in the Des Moines U.S. House race. That year, Rebecca Williamson running in the 3rd district received 6,258 votes, 2.60%.

On December 21, the Oregon Secretary of State ruled that the Constitution Party is still ballot-qualified. The Secretary of State interprets the law to mean that the vote test does count when a candidate is the nominee of two parties. However, it only counts for the party of membership of that candidate. Here is the December 20 blog post about this issue, which explains this issue in greater detail.

The Secretary of State acknowledges that the law is not clear, and it appears that the Secretary of State is depending on legislative intent. The law permitting fusion was never intended to make it more difficult for a party to remain qualified.

Two Pennsylvania State House members, Robert Godshall (Hatfield) and Seth Grove (York) say they will introduce a bill to let each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.