On Friday, Jimmy Blake told Alabama Today that the State of Alabama has the most restrictive ballot access law in the country and that that needs to change. Blake was the Libertarian Party of Alabama nominee for governor in last week’s general election.
On November 8, Blake received 45,823 votes – 3.25 percent of the votes cast – in his failed bid to be governor of Alabama. Kay Ivey was reelected to another term with 944,845 votes – 66.93% of the vote. Blake also was unable to achieve a high enough threshold for the Libertarian Party to have automatic ballot access in the 2024 election.
“In 48 states, all but Kentucky and Alabama, I would have gotten enough votes for the party to have had ballot access,” Blake said.
For a minor party to remain on the ballot in Alabama, one of its statewide candidates has to achieve 20% of the general election vote.
Democratic nominee Yolanda Rochelle Flowers received just 29.16% of the vote in the governor’s race. That was the poorest showing for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Alabama history, down from Walt Maddox’s 40.4% just four years ago.
None of the 65 Libertarian candidates on the ballot in last Tuesday’s general election were victorious.
In the U.S. Senate race, Libertarian nominee John Sophocleus received just 2.32% of the vote (32,790 votes), and Democratic nominee Will Boyd received 30.87% (435,428 votes), while Republican Katie Britt received 66.64% (940,048 votes).
Where Libertarians did best were in races where there was a Republican running but no Democrat.
In the Lieutenant Governor’s race, Republican incumbent Will Ainsworth coasted to victory with 83.69% of the vote (955,372 votes). Still, with no Democrat in the race, his Libertarian opponent, Ruth Page Nelson, received 15.60% of the vote – 178,069 votes – still short of that 20% threshold required by Alabama state law.
1,411,756 people voted in the governor’s race, but only 1,141,507 votes in the Lieutenant Governor’s race, a drop off of 270,639 voters. Many of those voters who dropped off the ballot were Democrats who voted a straight-party ticket without making a preference in races where the Alabama Democratic Party failed to recruit a candidate.
Candidate qualifying was over, and the ballot was set before new Democratic Party Chairman Randy Kelley was even elected. No Democrat won a statewide race on Tuesday. In fact, Doug Jones’s surprise victory over former Chief Justice Roy Moore in the 2017 special election for U.S. Senate is the only win for a Democrat in a statewide race in Alabama since 2008. The unlikely chance that a Democrat can win a statewide race in Alabama has made it extremely difficult for the Alabama Democratic Party to recruit candidates or for Democratic or non-Republican candidates to raise money.
Where Libertarians came closest was in the race for Public Service Commission Place 2 race. There incumbent Republican Chip Beeker received 83.18% (929,248 votes), while Libertarian nominee Laura Lane received 16.05% (179,302 votes).
“Laura Lane had enough votes for 49 states, even Kentucky, which has the second hardest ballot access at ten percent,” Blake said.
The Libertarian candidates for PSC Place 1, State Auditor, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries all received over 14 percent of the vote in addition to Lane and Nelson.
Blake said that Libertarians would be asking the Legislature to reform the state’s ballot access law.
The last time the Libertarian Party of Alabama had ballot access was 2002. Then Sophocleus received more votes than the deciding margin between incumbent Democrat Don Siegelman and winner then-Congressman Bob Riley. Following that heavily contested race, the State Legislature changed Alabama’s ballot access laws to make it more difficult for minor parties to qualify for ballot access.
The state requires a minor party or an independent candidate to turn in ballot access signatures of registered voters. To gain ballot access in this election cost the Libertarians over $240,000 and weeks of canvassing. The Party only completed the work in the days before the May 24 deadline.
Without intervention by the Legislature or the court system, Libertarians will have to repeat that process if they hope to run statewide candidates in 2024. The 2024 election will include the statewide offices of President, PSC President, Alabama Supreme Court, and appellate judge.
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