Best County in Nation for Some Minor Party, Independent Presidential Candidates Identified

Posted on by November 10, 2008
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From preliminary election returns, it appears that these are the best counties for five particular presidential candidates:

Nader: Morgan County, Tennessee 5.2%
Barr: Esmeralda County, Nevada, 2.7%
Baldwin: Millard County, Utah, 5.6%
McKinney: either St. Bernard or LaFourche, both in Louisiana, each 1.1%
Brian Moore: Essex County, Vermont, 2.1%

Thanks to Jack Ross for doing the laborious job of checking all the counties; also thanks to David Leip of the US Election Atlas. Of course when the returns are final, these may change. For the major parties, McCain’s best county is King County, Texas, at 93.2%; Obama’s best jurisdiction is Washington, D.C., which gave him a higher percentage than any county in any state, 92.9%. Aside from D.C., Obama’s best county is Prince Georges County, Maryland, 89.1%.

Georgia Libertarians May Get Spotlight in Senate Run-Off

Posted on by November 10, 2008
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The national media is already starting to pay attention to the upcoming Georgia U.S. Senate run-off. No one got as much as 50% of the vote for U.S. Senate this month. Georgia is the only state that provides for a run-off for U.S. Senate, when no one gets 50%. That runoff will be on December 2. See this article, which focuses on whether or not President-elect Barack Obama will get involved.

This is the third time a Libertarian for U.S. Senate in Georgia has caused no one to receive 50%. In 1992, the vote in November had been Wyche Fowler (Dem.) 1,108,416; Paul Coverdell (Rep.) 1,073,282; Jim Hudson (Libt.) 69,878. Hudson then endorsed Coverdell for the run-off. The run-off, held on November 24, was: Coverdell 635,114; Fowler 618,877.

In 1996, the vote in November was Max Cleland (Dem.) 1,103,993; Guy Millner (Rep.) 1,073,969; John Cashin (Libt.) 81,262. However, since the law had been changed between 1993 and 1995 to require a run-off only when no one get 45%, there was no run-off. After the 1996 election, though, the law was changed again to require a run-off when no one gets 50%.

It doesn’t follow logically that the Georgia Libertarian Party, or Allen Buckley (this year’s Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate), should endorse either major party nominee in the run-off.

No One Knows Yet How Many Voters Voted

Posted on by November 10, 2008
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This November 7 New York Times article says that turnout expert Curtis Gans believes between 126,000,000 and 128,500,000 voters voted in this election. But Professor Michael McDonald, another turnout expert, estimates 133,300,000 voters voted.

In 2004, the number of valid votes cast for president was 122,295,345. But in 2000 it was only 105,396,627. It thus seems clear that the 2004 election, not the 2008 election, had the more dramatic increase over the preceding election.

U.S. Supreme Court Fails to Decide Whether it Will Hear Ohio Case on Paying Circulators Per Signature

Posted on by November 10, 2008
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On November 7, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether or not to hear Ohio v Citizens for Tax Reform, 08-151. However, on November 10, the Court did not issue any order in that case. This means the Court hasn’t decided yet whether to hear the Ohio case. The issue is whether states may ban the practice of paying petition circulators on a per-signature basis. In this particular case, the 6th Circuit had invalidated Ohio’s law, based on substantial evidence that a ban on paying circulators on a per-signature basis makes petitioning significantly more expensive.

The Court’s next conference is November 14, and the next one after that is November 25.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune Op-Ed in Support of IRV

Posted on by November 9, 2008
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The November 9 Minneapolis Star-Tribune has this op-ed in favor of Instant Runoff Voting. The author says that the U.S. Senate race, and two U.S. House races, in Minnesota, might have turned out differently if IRV had been used (although, in the case of the U.S. Senate race, no one knows yet who will ultimately win). Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

The op-ed has one minor factual error. It says Jesse Ventura was elected Governor as the Reform Party nominee in 1998 with only 36.7% of the vote. Actually he got 37.00% of the total vote cast for Governor.