The U.S. Census Bureau released “Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2008” on July 20. The Census Bureau’s press release is here. The press release contains a link to the report itself, and the previous reports. The Census study depends on survey data, not election returns or voter registration data.

In 2008, the Census reports that 206,072,000 people could have registered and voted. However, of those, only 146,311,000 were registered. And of those who were registered, only 131,144,000 voted. So, 89.6% of the registered voters cast a ballot. But because only 71.0% were registered, the final turnout (voters divided by the number of people who could have registered and voted) was only 63.6%.

By contrast, in 2004, there were 197,005,000 people who could have registered and voted. 142,070,000 were registered. 125,736,000 voted. So, the November 2004 turnout was 63.8%, slightly higher than the 2008 turnout.

The Communist Party announced earlier this month that it will no longer produce a paper edition of its weekly newspaper, the People’s Weekly World. The paper will be an internet publication.

Very few nationally-organized political parties in the United States continue to publish a paper edition of a national newsletter or a national newspaper. The Libertarian Party still publishes the Libertarian Party News on paper (monthly), and the Socialist Workers Party still publishes The Militant on paper (weekly). UPDATE: also the Party for Socialism and Liberation publishes a bi-weekly newspaper called Liberation, and has done so for the last two years.

The Green Party no longer publishes the Green Pages on paper, except on rare occasions. The Constitution Party has never had a paper periodical, although William Shearer’s former print publications unofficially served as national party publications. The Reform Party never had a periodical either, nor did the Natural Law Party.

The Arkansas Green Party held a statewide meeting July 18-19 and decided to sue the state over its definition of “political party”. The party was removed from the ballot in November 2008 because it polled under 3% for president. However, it polled over 20% for U.S. Senate, and its three U.S. House candidates averaged over 19%.

The Green Party of Arkansas is the first party, in any state, since the beginning of ballot access laws in 1889, to have ever elected a state legislator while the state was simultaneously removing it from the ballot.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said repeatedly that the purpose of ballot access laws is to keep candidates and parties off the ballot if those candidate or parties lack a modicum of support. “Modicum” is defined to be “a small amount.” It is absurd for Arkansas, or any state, to say that a party that just elected a state legislator, and polled over 20% of the statewide vote, lacks a modicum of support.

There have been very few federal precedents over any state’s definition of “political party.”