The Arkansas Libertarian Party elected two partisan candidates last week. Besides the race in Little Rock, already mentioned on this blog, the party also elected the Constable of Washington Township, Van Buren County. Libertarian nominee Thomas Turcol defeated Republican nominee Shawna LeMarr with 57.6% of the vote.
The jurisdiction is centered on Dennard, Arkansas, in the north center of the state.
On November 14, President-Elect Donald Trump said he will nominate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is not the usual type of news posted at this blog, but it is relevant because Kennedy was an independent candidate for president during most of the calendar year 2024. Never before had an independent or minor party presidential candidate been appointed to a cabinet post immediately after the election, or perhaps not even for any period afterwards.
Kennedy had suspended his independent campaign on August 23, 2024.
This article says Florida is expected to quickly schedule two U.S. House special elections, because two Republicans have either already resigned or will soon, because they have been chosen by President Trump for executive posts.
As of Thursday, November 14, Claudia De la Cruz has more votes for President than Chase Oliver in California. California won’t certify its results until early December, and has millions of uncounted votes, so this might change. But the total on November 14 is 60,929 for Claudia De la Cruz, and 58.477 vote Chase Oliver. See the Secretary of State’s website here.
The last time the Peace & Freedom presidential nominee outpolled the Libertarian presidential nominee in California was 2008, when Ralph Nader on the PFP line got 108,381, and Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party got 67,582.
The New York State Board of Elections website shows 102,231 write-ins were cast for President last week. The State Board still hasn’t got the number of write-ins for each of the declared write-in presidential candidates. But the very large number of write-ins shows that election officials have gone to a great deal of work, and will continue until the tally is done. Each one of those write-ins must be examined by an election administration employee. This is far more expensive and time-consuming than processing votes for candidates whose names are on the ballot.
The write-in total is 1.28% of the total votes cast. See here. Thanks to Tony Roza for the link.
