The only four states that still haven’t released their official November 2006 election returns are Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Pennsylvania returns will be especially interesting, since the state elections department has indicated it will include write-ins (something that Pennsylvania has not done, for the most part, during the last 20 years).
The only four states that still haven’t released their official November 2006 election returns are Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Pennsylvania returns will be especially interesting, since the state elections department has indicated it will include write-ins (something that Pennsylvania has not done, for the most part, during the last 20 years).
The Libertarian candidate for Governor of Georgia, Garrett Michael Hayes, polled 3.84% last month. That was the best showing for any minor party candidate for Governor of Georgia since 1902, when the Peoples Party polled 6.39% in a 2-person race.
Hayes’ best county was Clarke, home of the city of Athens and the main campus of the University of Georgia. Clarke County is always one of the better Georgia counties for Libertarians anyway, but this is the first time Clarke had been the most Libertarian county. Georgia has 159 counties, more than any other state except Texas.
Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, a Republican, will ask the Kentucky legislature to repeal the law that places a straight-ticket device on Kentucky ballots. He tried last year also, but the bill didn’t advance out of committee.
Most observers believe the straight-ticket device helps Republicans and hurts Democrats and minor parties. The Kentucky Senate has a Republican majority, but the House has a Democratic majority. Thanks to Ed Still for this news.
On late Saturday afternoon, November 16, the legal deadline for getting the job done, California released the official November 7, 2006 election returns.
The only real news from the official returns are the write-in totals, since semi-official totals for candidates listed on the ballot had been continuously tallied, and weren’t very different from the final figures.
Socialist Action Party, which has existed since 1984, had never run a candidate for partisan office anywhere in the U.S., until 2006, when Jeff Mackler was a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate from California. He polled 108 write-ins, with the bulk from San Francisco County (38) and Alameda County (34).
The Socialist Workers Party had also filed to have write-ins for its California candidates tallied. James Harris polled 46 for Governor, and Lea Sherman polled 47 for U.S. Senate. Harris had also been the SWP’s presidential candidate in 1996, 2000, and was the stand-in presidential candidate in 2004. The SWP needed a stand-in presidential candidate in 2004 because its actual presidential candidate, Roger Calero, was not a U.S. citizen and was therefore barred from the ballot in many states.
The Socialist Workers Party had nominated 4 write-in candidates for US House, and two of them filed to have their write-ins tallied. Naomi Craine received one write-in in the 34th district, and David Arguello received four write-ins in the 51st district.
The Socialist Equality Party also had a declared write-in candidate in California. John Burton, running for US House, 29th district, received 15 write-ins.
