On November 9, the San Francisco Elections Department released additional election returns data, which makes it a virtual certainty that Ross Mirkarimi won the November 8 election for Sheriff of San Francisco County. Mirkarimi was one of the founders of the California Green Party, and while he was a registered member of the Green Party, he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. However, in March 2010 he changed his registration from “Green” to “Democratic.”
On November 8, Hartford, Connecticut, held an election for city council. Nine at-large seats were up, and the race is partisan. The law says no party may run more than six nominees. The six Democratic nominees won, and three of the Working Families Party nominees also won. The WFP had run four nominees. Republicans ran three nominees, and there were three independent candidates, but neither the Republicans nor the independents won any seats. See this story. The chart in the article, showing winners, erroneously fails to show a checkmark next to the name of Democratic nominee David McDonald (the newspaper chart intended to show a checkmark next to the name of each winnner).
In 2007 in Hartford, the Working Families Party had elected two council members and the Republicans had elected one. The Working Families council members who were re-elected are Luis Cotto and Larry Deutsch; the new WFP member is Cynthia Jennings. Thanks to Dominik Kot for the link.
On November 8, Mississippi held elections for all state office. The Reform Party nominee for Auditor, Ashley Norwood, was in a 2-party race against a Republican. Norwood polled 181,425 votes, 24.34% of the total vote cast for that office. This is the highest percentage for a minor party nominee for statewide office in Mississippi since the Peoples (Populist) Party showing in 1895.
Although George Wallace carried Mississippi in the presidential election of 1968, he was an independent candidate in Mississippi. Strom Thurmond carried Mississippi in the presidential election of 1948, but in Mississippi Thurmond was the Democratic Party nominee, and Harry S Truman was an independent candidate in Mississippi.
The Reform Party also got a high percentage in a 2-party statewide race in Mississippi in 2003: it polled 23.69% for Auditor that year. In the November 8, 2011 election, the Reform Party was also in a 2-party race for Lieutenant Governor, but in that race the Reform Party nominee, Tracella Hill, only received 19.65% of the vote. Thanks to Tony Roza for finding these 2011 unofficial Mississippi election returns.
On November 8, the Federal Election Commission issued a press release, mentioning that a few weeks ago, it sent a check for $17,689,800 to the Republican National Committee, and a check for the same amount to the Democratic National Committee, so that each of these two parties can pay for the costs of their 2012 national conventions.
The Democratic convention is the latest in U.S. history. It is September 3-6, 2012, in Charlotte. The Republican convention is August 27-30 in Tampa. Because the Democratic convention is so late, all the states have laws to say that qualified parties need not notify elections officials of the names of their presidential and vice-presidential nominees until 60 days before the general election. The 2012 election is on November 6.
The Country Party, which is organized only inside Wyoming, has 2,000 signatures on its petition to be a qualified party. The party hopes to be finished by December 1, 2011. The Country Party needs 3,740 valid signatures by June 1, 2012.
Wyoming is likely to have six ballot-qualified parties in 2012, the most in its history. The others are expected to be Libertarian (which is already on), Constitution, and Americans Elect.
