The Louisiana Secretary of State posts new voter registration totals on his web page every month, but those statistics never include any parties except the Democratic and Republican Parties, even though Louisiana has five qualified parties. However, on November 3, his office issued a report that shows how many registered voters there are in each party, including even the unqualified parties.

The new totals, converted to percentages, for the five qualified parties, are: Democratic 49.44%; Republican 26.89%; Libertarian .17%; Reform .05%; Green .05%. Independent voters, plus those registered in unqualified parties, equal 23.41%.

A year ago, the percentages were: Democratic 50.62%; Republican 26.21%; Libertarian .13%; Reform .05%; Green .04%; independents plus miscellaneous 22.95%.

The monthly totals for the two major parties show that the Democratic Party dipped below 50% of all registered voters for the first time at the June 1, 2011 tally, and has continued to make very slow declines since then.

A party becomes ballot-qualified when its registration reaches at least 1,000, and also when it submits a list of its officers, its bylaws, and a fee of $1,000. The only three unqualified parties that are organized, and that have even 50 registrants, are the Conservative Party with 396 registrants, the Constitution Party with 137 registrants, and the Socialist Party with 62 registrants. Thanks to Randall Hayes, who obtained the full registration report.

On October 24, the highest state court in Maryland, which is called the Court of Appeals, decided to hear Maryland State Board of Elections v Libertarian Party of Maryland, et al, no. 2011-277. The Libertarian and Green Parties had won this case at the trial court level. The state had then appealed to the mid-level court, but now the highest court will hear the case, so that there will be no proceedings in the mid-level court.

The issue is whether petition signatures are valid when the signer can be identified as a registered voter, but there is some slight difference between how the voter put his or her name and address on the petition, versus how it appears on the voter registration records. Another issue is whether, when a voter signs the petition twice, whether both signatures should be invalidated, or whether one of the signatures counts. The Maryland Court of Appeals, in the recent past, has been an excellent court for ballot access. Thanks to Doug McNeil for this news.

Juan Williams, an award-winning journalist who worked for National Public Radio 2000-2010 and is now a political analyst for Fox News Channel, writes here that Ron Paul might conceivably be the Americans Elect presidential nominee.