Democracy, elections and voting

Libertarian Party support has grown in the wake of the financial crisis, as Gary Johnson New York popularity has soared. Thanks to Ballot Access News for the story.  Gary Johnson had a strong showing in New York State with the numbers out so far.  It seems this might present a chance for the Libertarian Party to get registered as a political party in the state.  Take a look:

No one knows yet if Gary Johnson received as many as 50,000 votes for President this month in New York state. The preliminary total for Johnson, gathered by the news media, is 42,452. However, the total on election night in New York state, as in most states, is far below what the final total will be.

In 1980, the Libertarian Party polled 52,648 votes for President, and after the election was over, filed a lawsuit, alleging that it had shown enough voter support to qualify as a political party. However, the attorney who filed the lawsuit erroneously sued the New York Secretary of State, instead of the State Board of Elections, which was a fatal procedural flaw.

The Libertarian Party also made inroads in other contests across the country.  They had the national results for the Libertarian Party candidates for Governor their website as well. Here are the unimpressive numbers:

Rupert Boneham (IN) 4.0%

Ron Vandevender (MT) 3.7%

John Babiarz (NH) 2.9%

Jim Higgins (MO) 2.7%

Ken Larson (UT) 2.2%

Barbara Howe (NC) 2.1% *

David Moran (WV) 1.3% *

Roland Riemers (ND) 0.8%

* Significant results include Barbara Howe, who retained ballot access in NC for 4 years by getting at least 2%, and David Moran, who gained ballot access in WV for 4 years by receiving at least 1%.

Below are the results for the Libertarian Party’s US Senate candidates last Tuesday:

Dan Cox (MT) 6.5%

Jonathan Dine (MO) 6.1%

Andrew Horning (IN) 5.8%

Mark Victor (AZ) 4.3%

John Jay Myers (TX) 2.1%

Joseph Kexel (WI) 2.1%

Scotty Bowman (MI) 1.8%

Paul Passarelli (CT) 1.7%

Rayburn Douglas Smith (PA) 1.7%

Dean Ahmad (MD) 1.2%

Shaun Crowell (TN) 0.9%

Andrew Ian Dodge (ME) 0.9%

Chris Edes (NY) 0.5%

Ken Kaplan (NJ) 0.5%

Of particular significance are the results for Scotty Bowman and Joseph Kexel, which retained or garnered ballot access for MI and WI, respectively, and Paul Passarelli, which allows the LP to run a US Senate candidate in CT in 2016 without petitioning. Also, Dean Ahmad received more votes (29,490) than any other statewide third-party candidate in Maryland in at least the last 50 years.