From: king@cogsci.ucsd.EDU (Jonathan King)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.marrou,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.perot
Subject: Previous Libertarian showings (was Re: New poll results)
Summary: a few fairly mild correction are required...
Date: 9 Sep 92 09:12:10 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

bam@bnlux1.bnl.gov (Bruce A. Martin) writes:
>n8443916@henson.cc.wwu.edu (John Gossman) writes:
>>Give up on the Libertarian vote.  In 1988 the Libertarian candidate
>>got less than 1% of the vote.  The New Freedom Party got almost as many
>				                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>votes.  
>
>BZZZZT!  Error trap.
>
>The New Alliance Party's candidate in 1988, Lenora Fulani, got barely HALF
>as many votes as the Libertarian candidate, Ron Paul.  
>
>Ron Paul got 432,179 votes.  Fulani got only 217,219.
>How is that "almost as many"?

Yup, this is correct.  My almanac says that the Libertarian share added
up to .47% of the the total 91,594,693 votes cast.

>In fact, since 1976, the Libertarian vote has always been the highest 
>of any other party besides the Demoblican/Replicrat party.  In 1980, 
>Ed Clark got MORE THAN 1% (and Marrou will probably beat that percentage).  

One pretty big nit: in 1980, John Anderson received 5,719,437 votes,
which is about 7%, and which was *definitely* greater than Ed Clark's
share.  Anderson, in fact, came surprisingly close to winning at least
one state (Massachusetts).

The interesting thing about the 1980 election is that Reagan hardly
won the rousing majority of the popular vote that people assume he
did.  In fact, he didn't win an outright majority of the votes cast!

Further, while Marrou might well get better than 1% of the vote, do
you really think he'll do substantially better than Ross Perot, who is
quietly on the ballot in a large number of states?

>In 1988, the Libertarian candidate got more votes than ALL OTHER 3rd 
>PARTIES PUT TOGETHER!  This was also true in 1980.  (I'm not sure about 
>1984.)

Again, I think this statement is *bizarre* if made in reference to
1980 when the Libertarians finished fourth.  And, actually, whether
this was true in 1988 depends on how you define "3rd parties".  The
broadest definition would include all votes *not* cast for Bush or
Dukakis, in which case we find that the Libertarians didn't quite make
it, winning 432,116 votes out of the total 899,522 votes cast for the
following:

Delmar Dennis
Earl Dodge
David Duke
Lenora B. Fulani
James C. Griffin
Jack Herer
Larry Holmes
Willa Kenoyer
Lyndon H. LaRouche
Herbert Lewin
William A. Marra
John G. Martin
Eugene J. McCarthy
Ronald E. Paul
James Mac Warren
Edward Winn
Louie G. Youngkeit
Write-in
None-of-the-above (Nevada option)

And to be more than fair, if you limit consideration to candidates
appearing on the ballot and toss out the Nevada Option (for whatever
reason), then the Libertarians *still* don't outpoll the others.  Now,
admittedly, John G. Martin only captured 236 votes for the the Third
World Assembly, but you'd have to ignore his and at least 3 other
people's votes to make the claim true.  What's up?

>Unlike the other 3rd parties, Libertarians are running candidates for 
>President & Vice President in all 50 states (+DC).  Over 500 Libertarian
>candidates are running for office this year, and some will win -- adding
>to the 100 or so Libertarians now in office (including state Legislators).

Just wondering though: aren't there many more than 100 "Independents"
(i.e. no party, not members of *The* Independent Party represented by
Louie G. Youngkeit in 1988) in offices where partisan affiliations are
allowed?  

>The Libertarian Party is America's third-largest party BY ANY MEASURE.
>Comparison with the New Alliance Party in this regard is downright 
>ludicrous!

They certainly got more votes in 1988, and I expect they enjoy a solid
lead in voter registrations, but we all know that the fortunes of
political parties wax and wane.  The American Independents under
Wallace were the last third party to win electoral votes, and while
they haven't done diddly since then, rumor has it that their
membership is up this year.  (Personally, I'm hoping this is due to
confusion about what Ross Perot's party was; that was the excuse given
in California, at any rate.)  Right now the Libertarians are running
third, but when the third place share hovers around the 1% level and
you finish no better than fourth in 2 of the last 6 presidential
elections, you've certainly got some building to do.

jking
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.marrou,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.perot