Daily Newspaper in Missouri Makes an Endorsement in the Libertarian Presidential Primary

Posted on by February 2, 2008
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The Rolla Daily News of Rolla, Missouri, on Saturday, February 2, made editorial endorsements in the presidential primaries of all three ballot-qualified parties in Missouri. In the Libertarian primary, the newspaper endorsed George Phillies. See it here. Rolla is in central Missouri, southeast of Jefferson City. Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch for this.

Other Libertarians on the Missouri presidential primary ballot are Dave Hollist, Daniel Imperato, Michael Jingozian, Steve Kubby, and Wayne Allyn Root.

The editorial also endorsed Mike Huckabee for Republicans, and Barack Obama for Democrats.

New Jersey Early Voters May Retract Old Ballot, Vote Again

Posted on by February 2, 2008
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On January 31, a New Jersey Superior Court ruled that absentee voters who voted before that date may ask to have their first ballot withdrawn, and then they may vote again. This appears to be the first time any court has permitted early absentee voters to do this, anywhere in the nation. The case is Block v Milgram, C34-08, Ocean County Superior Court.

The lawsuit was filed by the Ocean County Elections Department, and applies statewide. Voters who already voted who want to cast a new ballot must apply by February 4 (Monday). The rationale for the decision is that Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards dropped out somewhat unexpectedly on January 30, after approximately 25,000 New Jersey voters had voted absentee. Presumably many of these voted for one of the candidates who dropped out and would like to vote again.

In 1990, the Republican candidate for Minnesota Governor dropped out of the race in late October. Minnesota reprinted all its ballots, only a week before the election, to list the replacement Republican nominee. However, early absentee voters who had already voted for the now-replaced Republican nominee did not have a similar opportunity to vote again. The official election returns dutifully listed 10,941 votes for Jon Grunseth, the original Republican nominee. Since the new Republican nominee won the election by 59,770 votes, the Grunseth votes didn’t matter anyway.

New California Registration Data

Posted on by February 2, 2008
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On February 1, the California Secretary of State released new registration data. The new tally is as of January 22, 2008, the deadline for the February 5 presidential primary.

Comparing the new percentages for each political party to the last tally (the last tally was as of December 7, 2007), all political parties declined, except for the Democratic and American Independent (Constitution) Parties.

The new percentages are: Democratic 42.95%, Republican 33.28%, American Independent 2.09%, Green .81%, Libertarian .51%, Peace & Freedom .36%, Reform .17%, independents and other parties 19.82%

The old percentages were: Democratic 42.66%, Republican 33.55%, American Independent 2.07%, Green .86%, Libertarian .53%, Peace & Freedom .37%, Reform .19%, independents and other parties 19.77%.

The Reform Party is not ballot-qualified, but since it has asked the Secretary of State to tally its registrants, the figures for it are known.

The March 1, 2008 paper edition of Ballot Access News will carry registration data for all the states that have registration by party. This will be the first new data for the whole nation since BAN’s January 1, 2007 issue.