Only three candidates were on the ballot for the Oregon U.S. Senate race, nominees of the Democratic, Republican, and Constitution Party. It appears likely that the Constitution Party tipped the outcome in this race. The results, as of November 6, are Jeff Merkley (Dem.) 814,054; Gordon Smith (Rep.) 762,035; David Brownlow (Constitution) 86,994.
Tennessee State Senator Rosalind Kurita, running for re-election as a write-in candidate after the Democratic Party rejected her as its nominee (even though she had won the Democratic primary in August) only received 17% of the vote as a write-in candidate. See this story for more details.
The Libertarian Party candidates for U.S. House will have polled over 1,000,000 votes, as soon as all the votes are counted. Preliminary figures are at 990,000, and perhaps 8% of all the votes (mostly absentees and provisionals) have not yet been counted.
The Libertarian Party also exceeded 1,000,000 for U.S. House in 2000, 2002, and 2004. It is the only minor party that has polled as many as 1,000,000 votes for U.S. House since 1914, when the Progressive Party polled 1,117,939 votes. Thanks to Greg Kaza for the 2008 calculation.
The 2008 election is the first election since 1988 in which no independent or minor party candidate won a statewide election. However, there is one statewide race in 2008 in which an independent appears to have placed ahead of a major party nominee, and also one U.S. House race with that characteristic.
In Vermont, with 88.5% of the precincts reporting, independent gubernatorial candidate Anthony Pollina is slightly ahead of his Democratic opponent. The vote is Douglas (Rep.) 146,034; Pollina (indp.) 57,366; Symington (Dem.) 57,150; others 7,938.
In California’s U.S. House race, 8th district, the vote is: Pelosi (Dem.) 126,073; Sheehan (indp.) 29,951; Walsh (Rep.) 16,149; Berg (Libt.) 4,024.
No federal court has ever struck down any state’s law, on how a party remains on the ballot. However, the Arkansas Green Party, and the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party, are in an excellent position to file such lawsuits and win them.
The Arkansas Green Party polled 21% for U.S. Senate on November 4, and it elected a state legislator, Richard Carroll. It had nominees in three of the four U.S. House districts, and they polled 23%, 22%, and 14%. Yet Arkansas will disqualify the party, since Arkansas only looks at the vote for President or Governor (depending on whether which office is up). It is absurd for a state to say a party that achieved what the Green Party did in 2008, does not have enough voter support to justify being on the ballot in the next election.
In Pennsylvania, the Libertarian Party polled enough votes for some of the statewide state offices to meet the state’s definition of “party”. But it is treated as though it weren’t a qualified party, because it has registration of less than 15% of the state total. No party has ever directly challenged the 15% registration test. However, in the 3rd circuit opinion Rogers v Cortes, one of the three judges expressed doubt that the 15% registration test is constitutional. The other two judges did not say anything about that. The 15% registration test is so severe, if it existed in Massachusetts and D.C., the Republicans would not be on the ballot; and if it existed in Utah, the Democrats would not be on.
