The Associated Press has this recent story, suggesting that we are entering a period in which more voters than usual are interested in looking seriously at voting for a minor party or independent candidate.
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Parsippany Hills High School in Morris County, New Jersey, recently held a mock gubernatorial vote. It appears that even though there are 12 candidates on the actual ballot, the school handed out ballots with only the Democratic, Republican and Socialist Party nominees, and independent candidate Chris Daggett. This may be related to the fact that there were high school students willing to act out a mock high school debate for those four particular actual candidates. The student holding himself out as Greg Pason, the actual Socialist Party nominee, said in the high school debate that he would work for free university tuition and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The results: Corzine (Democrat) 121 votes, Christie (Republican) 97 votes, Daggett (independent) 95 votes, Pason (Socialist) 79 votes. Pason’s total was 20.1% of the total vote cast. See this story. Thanks to Darcy Richardson for the link.
On October 30, Jim Duensing, who was chairman of the Nevada Libertarian Party until March, 2009, was shot by a Las Vegas policeman after the police had stopped Duensing for making an illegal turn and some illegal lane changes. According to this newspaper story, he was in a rental car, and he bolted and ran away from the police. He is still alive but is in critical condition. Duensing was also a Libertarian nominee for U.S. House last year.
On October 31, the Republican Party nominee in New York’s special U.S. House election, Dede Scozzafava, said she is suspending her campaign. She declined to endorse either of her opponents, the Democratic nominee or the Conservative Party nominee. See this story.
On October 30, SurveyUSA released this poll, for the special U.S. House race in California’s 10th district. The poll only asked people to choose the Democratic nominee, the Republican nominee, or “other”. The results: John Garamendi (Dem.) 50%, David Harmer (Rep.) 40%, “Other” 6%. The other ballot-listed nominees are from the American Independent, the Green, and the Peace & Freedom Parties.
It is likely most of the other vote is going to the Green and/or Peace & Freedom Parties, because the “Other” voters were far more likely to have voted for Obama than for McCain. All the voters intending to vote “other” describe themselves predominently as “liberal” rather than “moderate” or “conservative.” See details of the poll here.