The total vote cast in the U.S. in regularly-scheduled elections for independent candidates for State Senate in November 2010 was 302,051 votes. When the same seats were up in November 2006, independent candidates received 152,151 votes.

Forty-two states held State Senate elections in each of those years. In most of those states, only half the seats were up. In the rare instance of multi-winner State Senate seats, when there was more than a single independent candidate, only the vote for the top vote-getting independent was included in the total.

In November 2010, independent candidates were elected to the State Senate in Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, and Rhode Island.

In November 2008, voters in Stephenson County, Illinois, elected an independent candidate to the County Board from district K. He was George Kinney, and he defeated his only opponent, the Republican nominee, by a margin of 52.4% to 47.6%. Board members have four year terms. Kinney died on January 31, 2011. Stephenson County provides that when a board member dies, there is no special election. Instead, the party of the deceased nominee chooses a replacement. However, Kinney was an independent, so the Board isn’t sure how to proceed. See this story.

Michael Peroutka, the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee in 2004, recently was the guest speaker at a Republican Party Club in his home state of Maryland, according to this news story. Peroutka was also the vice-presidential nominee in 2008 of the Montana Constitution Party. The Montana Constitution Party listed Ron Paul for president in the November 2008 election, with Peroutka as the vice-presidential nominee. That ticket received 2.17% of the Montana presidential vote, even though Paul did not desire to be on the Montana ballot and was nominated against his own wishes.

The Montana Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill, HB 91, which has already passed the House, provides that presidential candidates may withdraw their names from the November ballot. This provision was placed in the bill so that a repeat of what happened in 2008 will not recur.