CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS TRY TO VASTLY TOUGHEN RULES FOR PRIMARY SEASON MATCHING FUNDS
Starting in 1984, minor party presidential candidates have used primary season matching funds to help pay for petitioners to get on the ballot. Now, Democrats in Congress propose to make eligibility for primary season matching funds five times more difficult. H.R. 1 and S.1 make many election law changes. Among the changes are increasing the difficulty of receiving primary season matching funds. Current law requires small donations totalling at least $5,000 from each of twenty states. The bills raise that to $25,000 from each of twenty states.
Minor party presidential candidates who have received primary season matching funds, and the amounts, are as follows:
NEW ELECTION RULES IN MAINE, TEXAS, AND UTAH BOOSTED MINOR PARTY 2020 VOTE
In November 2020, different election rules in Maine, Texas, and Utah were in effect for the first time. As expected, in all three states, the new rules boosted the minor party vote. In Maine, the new rule was the use of ranked choice voting for president. In Texas and Utah, the new rules were the elimination of the straight-ticket device. Texas eliminated it in 2018 but the change was not effective until 2020. Utah eliminated it in 2020.
Maine: the Green Party benefited from ranked choice voting for federal office. (Maine still doesn’t have ranked choice voting in general elections for
Incumbents win races for state, federal offices
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An election worker assists a Worthington resident with his ballot during in-person voting on Nov. 3 at the Worthington Area YMCA. (Tim Middagh/The Globe)
While the U.S. presidential election made headlines across the nation and the world, Worthington and Nobles County had their own campaigns as well this past year.
In the city of Worthington, Chris Kielblock won the right to represent Ward 1 on the Worthington City Council and replace retiring councilman and former mayor Alan Oberloh. Kielblock earned 59.06% of the vote total to defeat Aida Simon, who had 40.47%.
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Minnesota has four ballot-qualified parties: the two major parties, the Legal Marijuana Now Party, and the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party. Minnesota has eight U.S. House seats. In six districts, one or the other of the marijuana parties had a nominee. Treating the two parties as a single party, their nominees polled 6.86% of the vote in the districts in which they had candidates.
This is easily the best showing by any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, in U.S. House races around the country. All of the Minnesota districts had a Republican and a Democratic running as well. There were U.S. House districts around the nation in which a Libertarian Party nominee polled above 15%, but those were all districts with only one major party nominee.