The Newark, New Jersey Star-Ledger has this column in its November 1 edition. It lambasts New Jersey election law on two points: (1) the design of the ballot for candidates who are not the nominees of qualified parties; (2) the restrictive definition of qualified political party in New Jersey.

The column contrasts New Jersey with New York, where parties that poll approximately 1% of the vote for Governor meet the definition of “qualified party”. The story mentions that the Conservative Party, having enjoyed qualified status in New York ever since 1962, was well-positioned to run a competitive race in this week’s special U.S. House race in that state. By contrast, the article says that New Jersey defines “political party” to be a group that polled 10% of the total vote cast for all votes cast for the lower house of the legislature at the last election. This definition is so restrictive, no party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties has ever met it. That definition was created in 1920. Before 1920, the definition was 2% of the Assembly vote, and it is believed that both the Progressive Party of 1912-1916 met that earlier definition, as well as the Socialist Party in 1917 and perhaps 1912-1914. Therefore, the column is not strictly accurate when it says no third party has been ballot-qualified in New Jersey in the 20th century, but it is accurate to say that no third party has ever met the existing 10% requirement. The article is also slightly in error when it says the Liberal Party is still ballot-qualified; that party failed to poll as much as 50,000 votes for Governor in 2002, so has not returned to the New York ballot. Thanks to Scott Lieberman for the link.

This October 30 newspaper story reports that the Republican Party of Nevada finally counted the votes from its 2008 presidential caucus in the 2nd U.S. House district. The 2nd distrist is the district that encompasses almost all of the state of Nevada except Las Vegas and its suburbs. The returns show that three Ron Paul delegates would have been sent to the national convention, instead of three John McCain delegates, if the votes had been counted.

The ballots had been locked up for 18 months in a casino cashiers cage at the Peppermill, where the state convention had been held. Thanks to Jack Dean for the link.

The October 31 issue of the Washington Independent newspaper has this story, that says New York Independence Party chair Frank MacKay now regrets thats the Independence Party nominated Dede Scozzafava for U.S. House, in the 23rd district special election. Scozzafava remains on the ballot as the nominee of both the Republican Party and the Independence Party. However, a few days ago, she suspended her campaign, so observers perceive the race now to be between the Democratic nominee and the Conservative Party nominee.