The Utah state elections office has released a registration tally. The results: Republican 589,326; Democratic 132,011; Libertarian 3,181; Constitution 2,203; independent and other, 772,997.

The percentages are: Republican 39.30%; Democratic 8.80%; Libertarian .21%; Constitution .15%; independent and other 51.54%.

By contrast, in October 2008, the percentages were: Republican 41.60%; Democratic 8.93%; Libertarian .20%; Constitution .14%; independent and other 49.13%.

If Utah had Pennsylvania’s election law, the Democratic Party would not be on the ballot, and all of its nominees for public office would need a petition to appear on the general election ballot. Pennsylvania treats all parties that have less than 15% of the registration as though they were not qualified, for purposes of appearing on the ballot. Thanks to Frank Fluckinger for the new Utah data.

On June 9, attempts to pass bills in Congress to expand the size of the U.S. House were abandoned. D.C. Delegate to the House Eleanor Holmes Norton removed HR 157 for consideration by the House this year. See this story in the Washington Examiner.

On June 9, Virginia Democrats held a primary to choose a gubernatorial candidate. Terry McAuliffe, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, placed a distant second to a Virginia state legislator, Creigh Deeds. See this story. McAuliffe spent the most money, and had been endorsed by former President Bill Clinton, and had once been considered the front-runner.

But McAuliffe received bad publicity less than two weeks ago, when Theresa Amato’s book about the Nader 2004 campaign was published. The book, “Grand Illusion: the Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny” revealed that McAuliffe had told Nader in early 2004 that Nader must not get on the ballot in 19 particular states, and that if Nader agreed, McAuliffe would steer campaign contributions to him for his campaign in 31 other states. The press asked Nader to corroborate the story, and he did so, and that made the news.