In every presidential election year, voters of the 50 states are able to cast two votes, at least, for important policy-making office. Every voter in the 50 states may vote for president, and for U.S. House of Representatives.

Therefore, in every presidential election year, there are two measures of minor party and independent support…the presidential “other” vote, and the U.S. House “other” vote.

No one seems to have tallied the “other” vote for U.S. House yet for the 2008 election, but it seems likely to be higher than it had been in recent previous elections. The “other” vote for U.S. House had been very high in 2000, 4.17%. That had been the highest “other” vote for U.S. House since 1938. However, since 2000, the U.S. House “other” vote has been declining. It was 3.58% in 2002, 2.75% in 2004, and 2.49% in 2006. These declines undoubtably reflected the intense struggle between the two major parties for U.S. House; many voters cared intensely about the outcome of congressional elections during the George W. Bush presidency.

Although the votes for U.S. House haven’t been tallied yet, we have these clues that the 2008 “other” vote will be higher than it was in 2006: the Libertarian U.S. House total in 2006 was only 560,400, but in 2008 it is likely to be 1,050,000. The Green U.S. House total in 2006 was only 293,606, but it is likely to be close to 600,000 in 2008. The Connecticut Working Families U.S. House vote in 2006 was only 5,794, but in 2008 it is approximately 70,000.

Although one might feel that the 2008 votes for U.S. House are available now, this is not the case. No figures have been released for the New York qualified minor parties, the Independence, Working Families, and Conservative Parties, because the news organizations do not bother to do it, and the New York State Board of Elections has no results whatsoever so far.

The “other” percentage of the vote for U.S. House, for all elections 1914-2000, is in the May 1, 2001 print edition of Ballot Access News.

This year, five registered Greens ran for the Florida legislature. They were all individuals who were completely unknown to the Green Party leadership. But because the Florida law was changed in 2007 to provide that all parties (not just the parties with registration of 5%, meaning the Democrats and Republicans) nominate by primary, it was easy for anyone to register into any party and file for that party’s primary, regardless of the wishes of a minor party’s leadership.

News stories said that all five Greens had only been registered in the Green Party for a few weeks before they filed. Some had previously been registered Republican, some independent, and some had not even been previously registered. Reporters suspected that Republicans had recruited them to run so as to increase the chances that Republicans would win the legislative seats in question. That may or may not be true. In any event, none of the 5 Greens seem to have changed the identity of the winners in those 5 races. In three of the races (State Senate districts 25 and 27, and State House district 44) the Republican nominee won over 50% of the total vote. In the other two (State House districts 69 and 81), although no one received as much as 50% of the total vote, Democrats won both seats.

On November 10, an assorted group of political activists and party officials sued in federal court to force New York city to keep term limits in place for Mayor and City Council. See this article. It is not immediately obvious what in the U.S. Constitution pertains to this issue. Check back for more information later.

Two members of the Suffolk County, New York, county legislature are now enrolled members of the Independence Party. They are Jack Eddington, who just switched to the Independence Party from the Working Families Party, and Jay Schneiderman, who switched from the Republican Party in July 2008. See this article. Eddington is married to Patricia Eddington, who is a member of the New York state legislature. She is still enrolled as a Working Families Party member, one of the two minor party registrants in the New York legislature.

Jack Eddington probably would have remained in the Working Families Party, except that the Suffolk County Working Families Party has been feuding with the statewide Working Families Party for some time, over the issue of who should control the party’s nominations, the county organization or the state organization. The state’s highest court ruled earlier this year in favor of the state organization.

New York counties elect their county legislatures in odd years.

The New York State Senate now has a Democratic majority for the first time since the 1950’s. The struggle of the two major parties for control of the Senate in this election year was mirrored by a shadow struggle between the Working Families and Independence Parties of New York. Both minor parties gave everything they had to help one of the major parties. In the case of the Working Families Party, that involved canvassing extensively for Democrats. In the case of the Independence Party, that meant an all-out effort to help Republicans. See this article about the Working Families effort and this article about the Independence Party’s effort. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the links.

On November 10, the California Secretary of State’s office confirmed that it will follow past practice, and tally votes for the declared write-in candidates for president even if the voter didn’t write-in anyone for vice-president. Thanks to the Frank Moore for president campaign staff for this news.

In the District of Columbia, an attorney for the Center for Competitive Democracy has requested the Board of Elections to tally the votes for the declared write-in presidential candidates. In the past, the D.C. Board has not tallied the votes for declared write-in candidates, saying that it is sufficient to simply announce how many votes all of them collectively received. In 1975, a D.C. Superior Court ordered the Board of Elections to “count” the votes for declared write-in presidential candidates, but the Board has never followed this court order. Also, in 1999, a U.S. District Court in D.C. ordered the Board to count the votes on a medical marijuana initiative. The Board then did so, and learned that the initiative had passed (Congress had passed a law telling the Board not to count the votes on that initiative, but that law was declared unconstitutional). One can imagine the reaction if the Board had “counted” the votes on the medical marijuana initiative by simply announcing the number of votes cast, without specifying how many “yes” votes and how many “no” votes there were.

From preliminary election returns, it appears that these are the best counties for five particular presidential candidates:

Nader: Morgan County, Tennessee 5.2%
Barr: Esmeralda County, Nevada, 2.7%
Baldwin: Millard County, Utah, 5.6%
McKinney: either St. Bernard or LaFourche, both in Louisiana, each 1.1%
Brian Moore: Essex County, Vermont, 2.1%

Thanks to Jack Ross for doing the laborious job of checking all the counties; also thanks to David Leip of the US Election Atlas. Of course when the returns are final, these may change. For the major parties, McCain’s best county is King County, Texas, at 93.2%; Obama’s best jurisdiction is Washington, D.C., which gave him a higher percentage than any county in any state, 92.9%. Aside from D.C., Obama’s best county is Prince Georges County, Maryland, 89.1%.

The national media is already starting to pay attention to the upcoming Georgia U.S. Senate run-off. No one got as much as 50% of the vote for U.S. Senate this month. Georgia is the only state that provides for a run-off for U.S. Senate, when no one gets 50%. That runoff will be on December 2. See this article, which focuses on whether or not President-elect Barack Obama will get involved.

This is the third time a Libertarian for U.S. Senate in Georgia has caused no one to receive 50%. In 1992, the vote in November had been Wyche Fowler (Dem.) 1,108,416; Paul Coverdell (Rep.) 1,073,282; Jim Hudson (Libt.) 69,878. Hudson then endorsed Coverdell for the run-off. The run-off, held on November 24, was: Coverdell 635,114; Fowler 618,877.

In 1996, the vote in November was Max Cleland (Dem.) 1,103,993; Guy Millner (Rep.) 1,073,969; John Cashin (Libt.) 81,262. However, since the law had been changed between 1993 and 1995 to require a run-off only when no one get 45%, there was no run-off. After the 1996 election, though, the law was changed again to require a run-off when no one gets 50%.

It doesn’t follow logically that the Georgia Libertarian Party, or Allen Buckley (this year’s Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate), should endorse either major party nominee in the run-off.

This November 7 New York Times article says that turnout expert Curtis Gans believes between 126,000,000 and 128,500,000 voters voted in this election. But Professor Michael McDonald, another turnout expert, estimates 133,300,000 voters voted.

In 2004, the number of valid votes cast for president was 122,295,345. But in 2000 it was only 105,396,627. It thus seems clear that the 2004 election, not the 2008 election, had the more dramatic increase over the preceding election.

On November 7, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether or not to hear Ohio v Citizens for Tax Reform, 08-151. However, on November 10, the Court did not issue any order in that case. This means the Court hasn’t decided yet whether to hear the Ohio case. The issue is whether states may ban the practice of paying petition circulators on a per-signature basis. In this particular case, the 6th Circuit had invalidated Ohio’s law, based on substantial evidence that a ban on paying circulators on a per-signature basis makes petitioning significantly more expensive.

The Court’s next conference is November 14, and the next one after that is November 25.