Subject: Re: [EL] a quibble about Prof. McDonald's voter registration data
From: Michael McDonald
Date: 10/13/2010, 9:46 PM
To: "election-law@mailman.lls.edu" <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>

I apologize to Richard for calling him a name in a private off-list e-mail. Thanks to Richard's reminder of our earlier exchange, I corrected the posting to note that minor party statistics are not reported separately from unaffiliated registrants in on-line reports for these states. If Richard or someone else would like to provide the official Nov. 2008 and most recent reports for minor party registration in these states, I will be happy to amend the table by breaking out the minor party statistics and their change from 2008.

 

============

Dr. Michael P. McDonald

Associate Professor, George Mason University

Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

 

                             Mailing address:

(o) 703-993-4191             George Mason University

(f) 703-993-1399             Dept. of Public and International Affairs

mmcdon@gmu.edu               4400 University Drive - 3F4

http://elections.gmu.edu     Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

 

From: election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu [mailto:election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Winger
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 9:44 PM
To: election-law@mailman.lls.edu
Subject: [EL] a quibble about Prof. McDonald's voter registration data

 

I applaud Professor Michael P. McDonald for gathering partisan voter registration totals, but I am going public with my complaint that he does an incomplete job on the minor parties.  His latest chart says, "I note that eight states (of the 29 states that have registration by party) do not officially recognize any minor party.

His chart has no minor party data for Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.  But all of those states except New Hampshire and Oklahoma do provide minor party registration data.  They will give it out if they are asked.  They just don't post it on their web pages.

I have e-mailed Professor McDonald about this before, and he gives me the impression that he isn't interested in what I have to contribute about this data, so I am making a general complaint here to those who might be interested.