New Mexico Libertarian Office-Holder Places 2nd in 3-way Partisan Race

Posted on by November 8, 2006
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Paul Trujillo, Libertarian County Commissioner in Valencia County, district 3, was defeated for re-election, although he outpolled his Republican opponent. The vote was Democratic 1,781 (47.1%), Libertarian 1,006 (26.6%), Republican 994 (26.3%).

New Mexico is one of the fourteen states that uses a straight-ticket device, so that voters frequently vote for every partisan office on the ballot without even being aware of which offices they are voting for, or who is running.

It is still true that no party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties has ever won a partisan election in New Mexico. Minor parties were traditionally very weak in New Mexico in the past. Greens were strong in the 1990’s, and elected several non-partisan candidates, but never won a partisan race.

California Voters Reject Anti-Minor Party Ballot Initiative

Posted on by November 8, 2006
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On November 7, California voters rejected an initiative that would have imposed discrimination against small qualified parties into the election law. The “Clean Elections” initiative, unlike similar initatives that passed years ago in Maine, Massachusetts and Arizona, would have provided that Democratic and Republican nominees automatically get substantially more public funding than anyone else. This, despite the fact that all candidates seeking public funding would have been subject to the same burden of getting a specified number of voters to give them $5 contributions. The initiative lost 74%-26%.

Will Ohio Appeal Libertarian Party Ballot Access Victory to U.S. Supreme Court?

Posted on by November 8, 2006
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As noted some time ago, the Ohio Libertarian Party won a huge victory in the 6th circuit in September 2006; that court struck down the state’s ballot access law for new parties. Ohio had a Republican Attorney General and a Republican Secretary of State at the time. They both indicated they planned to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal. However, Democrats won the Ohio races for Secretary of State and Attorney General on November 7, so perhaps the state will take a fresh look at whether it wishes to ask for U.S. Supreme Court involvement.

New York State Ballot Order Remains Unchanged, except for Democrats and Republicans

Posted on by November 8, 2006
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New York state puts qualified parties on the ballot in order of how many votes they received at the last gubernatorial election. The Democratic Party will now have the top line, replacing the Republican Party. The next three lines remain unchanged: Independence, Conservative, Working Families. The three qualified minor parties polled these votes for Governor: Independence 146,456; Conservative 128,007; Working Families 126,797. It is possible that this ranking will change as the final votes are counted. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.