Preliminary election returns show that Jesse Johnson, Mountain Party nominee for West Virginia Governor, polled 4.5% of the vote. That is the highest percentage for a minor party candidate for Governor of West Virginia since 1912, when the Socialist Party polled 5.6%.

The Mountain Party is affiliated with the Green Party nationally. It is the only ballot-qualified party in West Virginia, other than the two major parties. The only way for a party to become ballot-qualified is to poll 1% for Governor.

West Virginia has a tradition of great legal hostility toward minor parties. No minor parties appeared on the ballot for Governor in all the years 1936 through 1976.

Rick Lass, Green Party nominee for Public Regulation Commissioner, polled 43.74% of the unofficial vote in his race. The returns on the Secretary of State’s unofficial webpage show Lass with 75,731 votes, and his Democratic opponent with 97,405 votes. The Public Regulation Commission regulates public utilities. New Mexico is divided into 5 Public Regulation Commission districts; each district elects its own commissioner in a partisan election.

Lass’ vote is far more than 5% of the presidential vote cast in New Mexico this year. Therefore, his vote should mean that the Green Party has again regained status as a major party (i.e., a party that nominates by primary). However, the law is somewhat ambiguous. Sec. 1-1-9 says, “Major political party means any qualified political party, ANY of whose candidates received as many as 5% of the total number of votes cast at the last preceding general election for the office of Governor, or president of the United States.” The law also requires such a party to have registration of one-third of 1% of the statewide total, which the Green Party has.

Despite the word “any” (emphasized above with capital letters), some years ago a lower state court ruled that “any” means only President or Governor. An Attorney General’s Opinion previous to that said just the opposite.

Blog posts in the last two days have covered cases in which independent candidates were elected on November 4 to state legislatures in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Also minor parties elected members in Vermont and Arkansas.

In addition, an independent was elected to the South Dakota State Senate, the first time that has happened since 1964. However, the winner, Tom Dempster of Sioux Falls, is actually a registered Republican who failed to file in time for the Republican primary. Fortunately for him, South Dakota has no laws that prevented him from then petitioning as an independent candidate. He defeated his Democratic opponent 5,108 to 4,660.

In Maine, independent House member Thomas Saviello was re-elected as an independent, in the 90th district in Wilton. He easily defeated his only opponent, Democratic nominee Maxine Collins.

In Vermont, besides the Progressives, three independents were elected or re-elected to the State House. Details are lacking on who they are; if anyone knows, please comment. The National Conference of State Legislatures is the source of the information that three independents as well as four Progressives were elected to the Vermont House on November 4.