The Wall Street Journal of January 15, 2009, has this op-ed by Law Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen. It argues that the recent U.S. Senate recount in Minnesota suffered from disparate standards in various counties. That may be an accurate observation, but the op-ed misinforms its readers when it refers back to the 2000 Florida presidential recount.

The op-ed says, “Subsequent media counts (of all the Florida 2000 presidential votes) confirmed that Bush won anyway, under any uniform standard.”

The 2000 Florida ballots were recounted by a consortium of news organizations. That work was not completed until late in 2001. The New York Times of November 12, 2001, and other participating news organizations, explained that if only the four counties in which Gore had requested a recount had been counted, Bush would have won. But if all the votes from the entire state had been recounted, Gore would have won. The New York Times said on page one, Nov. 12, 2001, “Ballot standards under which all disqualified ballots statewide would have been reexamined; Gore would have received the most votes.” Specifically, the count would have been Gore 2,924,695; Bush 2,924,588.

In the November 2008 election, five independent candidates for U.S. House competed against both a Democrat and a Republican, and still managed to exceed 10% of the vote. They were:

1. David Krikorian in Ohio’s 2nd district got 17.71%
2. Cindy Sheehan in California’s 8th district got 16.17%
3. Burt Saunders in Florida’s 14th district got 14.49%
4. Carol Miller in New Mexico’s 3rd district got 12.79%
5. Michael Jackson in Louisiana’s 6th district got 11.59%.

Two minor party candidates for U.S. House polled over 10% even though they were both running against a Democrat as well as a Republican. They were both Minnesota Independence Party nominees. They were David Dillon in the 3rd district with 10.57%, and Bob Anderson in the 6th district with 10.05%.

Oklahoma Representative Charles Key (R-Oklahoma City) has introduced HB 1072, which lowers the number of signatures to qualify a new party from 5% of the last vote cast, to exactly 5,000 signatures. Earlier, Oklahoma Senator Randy Brogdon had introduced a similar (though more comprehensive) bill in the State Senate, SB 359.

Representative Key has also introduced HB 1340, to require parties to pay for their own presidential primaries. The bill would have no effect on primaries for office other than president.