Ideally this would wait until we have full results for the statewide elections (about 86% in) but this was too amusing to not share right away.
Here are the (incomplete) downballot statewide elections:
Secretary of State
Party Candidate Totals Pct Graph
Independence BOB HELLAND 83904 4.86%
Republican DAN SEVERSON 781767 45.33%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor STEVE SIMON 821286 47.62%
Libertarian Party BOB ODDEN 36722 2.13%
Write-In WRITE-IN** 1043 0.06%
State Auditor
Party Candidate Totals Pct Graph
Independence PATRICK DEAN 68144 3.95%
Republican RANDY GILBERT 680899 39.44%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor REBECCA OTTO 899944 52.12%
Libertarian Party KEEGAN IVERSEN 27344 1.58%
Grassroots - Legalize Cannabis JUDITH SCHWARTZBACKER 49510 2.87%
Write-In WRITE-IN** 736 0.04%
Attorney General
Party Candidate Totals Pct Graph
Independence BRANDAN BORGOS 39670 2.28%
Republican SCOTT NEWMAN 668629 38.50%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor LORI SWANSON 921869 53.08%
Green Party ANDY DAWKINS 27231 1.57%
Libertarian Party MARY O'CONNOR 27099 1.56%
Legal Marijuana Now DAN R. VACEK 51542 2.97%
Write-In WRITE-IN** 704 0.04%
Simon was clearly the weakest one right? Well let's look at my precinct:
Secretary of State
Party Candidate Totals Pct Graph
Independence BOB HELLAND 52 5.51%
Republican DAN SEVERSON 87 9.22%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor STEVE SIMON 769 81.46%
Libertarian Party BOB ODDEN 34 3.60%
Write-In WRITE-IN** 2 0.21%
State Auditor
Party Candidate Totals Pct Graph
Independence PATRICK DEAN 36 3.83%
Republican RANDY GILBERT 72 7.67%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor REBECCA OTTO 724 77.10%
Libertarian Party KEEGAN IVERSEN 24 2.56%
Grassroots - Legalize Cannabis JUDITH SCHWARTZBACKER 82 8.73%
Write-In WRITE-IN** 1 0.11%
Attorney General
Party Candidate Totals Pct Graph
Independence BRANDAN BORGOS 22 2.30%
Republican SCOTT NEWMAN 72 7.52%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor LORI SWANSON 686 71.61%
Green Party ANDY DAWKINS 87 9.08%
Libertarian Party MARY O'CONNOR 25 2.61%
Legal Marijuana Now DAN R. VACEK 62 6.47%
Write-In WRITE-IN** 4 0.42%
Simon did by far the best. So why is that? Well take a look at the third party results...and the names of the parties and note which one doesn't appear for Secretary of State.
Now consider that neither of these candidates ran a campaign, I had never heard of either one's name until I saw it on the ballot, and
neither one even has a website. In other words they had absolutely NOTHING going for them aside from the party name.
(I'll admit the temptation struck me when I saw that on the ballot for those races, but I ended up voting for Swanson and Otto.)
