Tuesday, March 17, 2020

NOTA got most votes in Massachusetts LP primary

by George J. Dance

Results of the Libertarian Party (LP) primary in Massachusetts held on Super Tuesday, March 3,have been posted on Wikipedia. 4,158 people voted in the primary, making it the third-largest poll of LP members so far, after two other Super Tuesday states (California with 22,021 votes case, and North Carolina with 6,914).

324 Massachuetts LP voters, or 7.8% of the total,  cast blank ballots. Of the 3,834 marked ballots, the largest number of votes went to None of the Above (NOTA). NOTA received 804, or 21%, more than twice as much as any candidate.

Vermin Supreme received the highest total of any candidate, 398 votes (10.4%), and was declared the primary winner by the Secretary of State's office. Close behind was Future of Freedom Foundation founder Jacob Hornberger, with 369 (9.6%).

No other candidate beat the blank ballot total. Dan "Taxation is Theft" Behrman received 294 votes (7.7% of marked ballots), and 224 votes were cast for Kim Ruff (who withdrew from the race in January). Arvin Vohra was the only other candidate to break 150 votes, with 151 (3.9%).

Massachusetts was the final Super Tuesday state to release LP totals. Of the three states that held Libertarian primaries that day, NOTA took the most votes in two (North Carolina with 33% and Massachusetts with 21%), while Hornberger won California with 19%. (NOTA was not on the ballot in California.) Hornberger also won the March 10 LP primary in Missouri, where NOTA was the only other option, with almost 75% of the vote.

Three candidates who entered the race late - Mark Whitney (who filed in December), former Senator Lincoln Chafee (filed in January), and John Monds (filed in February) - have not yet appeared on any Libertarian primary ballots. 

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