The Libertarian Party candidates for the office at the top of the ballot, together, polled 1,016,270 votes on November 2, 2010. The office at the top of the ballot is deemed to be Governor, in all states electing a Governor in 2010. For states that didn’t elect a Governor, it is U.S. Senator. For the four states with neither office up, it is U.S. House of Representatives.
This was only the fourth time that any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, had polled as much as 1,000,000 votes for the office at the top of the ballot, in a midterm year in the 20th or 21st centuries. The other instances had been the Progressive Party in 1914, the Reform Party in 1998, and the Libertarian Party in 2002.
The Constitution Party’s 2010 vote for office at the top of the ballot was 925,583, its best showing ever. The Green Party’s 2010 figure was 520,830. The Green Party’s best showing had been in 2006, when its top-of-the-ticket vote was 942,604.
For the major parties, the November 2010 vote for the office at the top of the ballot was: Republican 41,904,500; Democratic 39,911,467. Parties not named above polled 1,313,532 (almost half of those votes were from New York). Independent candidates received 983,482 votes.
The total share of the vote in 2010 for the office at the top of the ballot, that did not go to either of the two major parties, was 5.50%. That is the highest “other” vote for the top-of-the-ticket in midterm years since 1934. Previous “other” shares of the vote in midterm years have been: 2006, 5.0%; 2002 5.3%; 1998 4.9%; 1994 4.5%; 1990 4.6%; 1986 3.6%; 1982 1.8%; 1978 2.4%; 1974 2.4%; 1970 3.4%; 1966 3.2%; 1962 1.1%; 1958 .9%; 1954 .6%; 1950 1.1%; 1946 1.4%; 1942 4.8%; 1938 3.8%; 1934 5.6%; 1930 6.1%; 1926 4.5%; 1922 4.2%; 1918 6.8%; 1914 16.3%.