California is one of a handful of states in which political parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties use government primaries to choose party officers. On June 20, San Francisco Elections Director John Arntz placed two slips of paper inside a jar, each containing the name of one candidate for Peace and Freedom Party County Central Committee. He then put his hand in the jar and drew out one name, and proclaimed that person the winner. This was done to break a tie. Each of the two candidates had polled 118 votes. See this story.

The story does not include the detail that the Peace & Freedom Party has determined that it will seat both candidates, notwithstanding the tie-breaking event. The party is free to do this, because the election was for party office, not public office. California parties are not required to elect party officers in the primary; but the Peace & Freedom Party, along with the Green Party, and the American Independent Party, do choose their party officers that way.

Al Jaeger, North Dakota Secretary of State, has asked Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to decide whether Roland Riemers may remain on the November 2012 ballot as the Libertarian nominee for Governor. See this story. Due to a paperwork error, the Libertarian running for Lieutenant Governor was kept off the Libertarian primary ballot, so the party has no Lieutenant Governor nominee. In North Dakota primaries, candidates for Governor run separately from candidates for Lieutenant Governor. But in the general election, they run as a team.

In Wisconsin in 2010, the Libertarian Party had a candidate in the primary for Lieutenant Governor, but not for Governor. Wisconsin election officials permitted the Lieutenant Governor candidate to be on the ballot in November, even though Wisconsin has the same system, in which Governor and Lieutenant Governor run separately in primaries but as a team in November.

Also, in 1986, Illinois Democrats had a nominee on the November ballot for Lieutenant Governor, but no one for Governor, and that was permitted. The Democratic ticket of no one for Governor and someone for Lieutenant Governor received 6.6% of the November 1986 vote. That vote was essential for keeping the Democratic Party on the ballot. If the ticket had polled under 5% of the vote, the Democratic Party would have lost its status as a qualified party. The reason Democrats had no candidate for Governor that year was that the winner of the Democratic primary, Adlai E. Stevenson III, resigned from the Democratic ticket rather than run in November teamed with a supporter of Lyndon LaRouche.

If the North Dakota Libertarian Party has no nominee on the November 2012 ballot for Governor, the only way it can remain ballot-qualified will be if Gary Johnson, the presidential nominee, polls at least 5%.

Here is a link to the Utah state elections web page, showing election returns for the June 26 primary. In the Republican presidential primary, the vote so far is: Mitt Romney 93%, Ron Paul 5%, Fred Karger 0.3%, Rick Santorum 2%, Newt Gingrich .5%.

In the Constitution Party gubernatorial primary, the results so far are: Kirk D. Pearson 65%, Brandon W. Nay 35%.