On November 7, the Socialist Workers Party asked the Federal Election Commission to extend its exemption from having to identity the individuals who contribute to its federal candidates. See this story from The Militant. In 1982 the party had won a unanimous decision in the U.S. Supreme Court that it need not identify its contributors nor its expenditures. The expenditure exemption was based on the fact that the list of expenditures would necessarily include the names of its branch organizers. The SWP won the case because it showed that when its supporters are identified publicly, they are subject to harassment.

The FEC has never ruled that the SWP is exempt from disclosure forever. The FEC always grants the party an exemption, but limits the time. The current exemption runs out on December 31, 2012.

Humboldt County, California, gave Jill Stein her highest percentage of the vote of any county in the United States. She received 4.36% in that county, which is on California’s northern coast. Humboldt County was also Cynthia McKinney’s best county in California in 2008, and David Cobb’s best county in California in 2004. McKinney received 1.01% in Humboldt County, and Cobb received 1.26%.

Humboldt County was also the Green Party’s strongest county in the 2010 gubernatorial race, when Laura Wells received 4.01% in that county.

Just prior to the 2012 general election, 3.82% of Humboldt County’s registered voters were registered Greens. Within Humboldt County, the Green Party’s center of strength is Arcata, home to one of the California State University campuses. Within the city limits of Arcata in October 2012, 908 voters were registered Greens, out of a total of 12,540 voters in that city. The Green registration percentage in Arcata was 7.24%.

David Wasserman not only has been tracking the presidential vote totals, he also has been tracking the vote for U.S. House by party. See this chart, which shows the vote for each district by party. His chart shows that Democratic nominees for U.S. House received more popular votes than Republican nominees did, yet, as is well known, Republicans won more seats.

His chart lumps in votes received on minor party labels into the major party columns, in instances in which a congressional candidate is nominated by both a major party and a minor party. But if he separated out the minor party votes for fusion nominees, the chart would still show more popular votes for Democrats than for Republicans. The January 1, 2013 Ballot Access News paper edition will also have a chart showing the vote by party for U.S. House, by state, but the BAN chart will not merge the minor party vote into the major party columns in cases of fusion.