On November 7, Douglas County, Nebraska voters voted 68%-32% to make County Commission elections non-partisan. Douglas County contains Omaha. Generally, Nebraska county elections are partisan, even though that state has non-partisan elections for state legislature.
Approximately 12% of all the voters in Sarasota County, Florida, failed to vote for U.S. House, even though the race was very close. In the district as a whole, the Republican is leading the Democrat by fewer than 300 votes. The Sarasota County Elections Supervisor, Kathy Dent, speculated that voters (who use touch screens) were confused because the U.S. House race was on a separate screen than the statewide races. She blamed the need for a separate screen on the fact that there was a “glut” of independent candidates for U.S. Senate.
However, there were only 4 independent candidates on the ballot for U.S. Senate, plus the Democratic and Republican nominees, for a total of 6. The Florida Democratic presidential primary in 2004 had 9 candidates on the ballot; the Florida Democratic gubernatorial primary this year had 5 candidates on the ballot. Somehow, no one is known to have complained about the “glut” of candidates in those primaries.
On November 7, the voters of Greene County, Alabama, elected a write-in candidate to be Sheriff. He defeated his ballot-listed opponent by about 100 votes. The sheriff-elect is Ison Thomas.
This is the prime season for state legislators to decide what bills they will be introducing next year. In some states, legislators can only introduce a fairly small number of bills, and in some states all bills must be introduced in the next three months.
It is especially important that bills be introduced in the states where the ballot access laws are so restrictive that only the Democratic and Republican Parties are now qualified. These states are Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington. Also, in Georgia, the Libertarian Party is qualified for statewide office only, not district or county office. And in Connecticut, several minor parties are ballot-qualified for some partisan offices but not others.
However, it should be noted that the Maryland Green Party will probably be ballot-qualified in a month or so, since it has almost finished its 2008 party petition; the same is true for the North Dakota Libertarian and Constitution Parties. Therefore, the list of “bad” states above will soon be 17 states, not 19. Also note that since the Arkansas and Ohio petition procedures were declared unconstitutional recently, state legislature in those states must address the question.
The Wyoming Libertarian nominee for Secretary of State polled 18% in a two-way race on November 7. That qualifies the party for its own primary. The party had already been a qualified party, but since it had polled under 10% in 2004, it was only entitled to nominate by convention.
This is not the first time the Wyoming Libertarian Party has been entitled to its own primary. It also enjoyed that status in 2004, because in 2002 it had also polled over 10% for Secretary of State. Both times, Wyoming Democrats didn’t run anyone for that office, so it was easier for the Libertarians to poll a big vote.
