Gary Johnson Currently Has 4.5 Percent of the Popular Vote

Live free or ... whatever.

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson is pulling in 4.5 percent of the popular vote right now. That's real numbers, not polling.

The numbers come from two small New Hampshire villages, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, who voted at midnight this morning. According to the Associated Press, President Barack Obama got 28 votes from the two villages, Mitt Romney got 14, and Johnson got two. (The AP reported he only got one last night, but the story has been updated. But then the vote numbers in Hart's Location are now off by one so there's still an error somewhere in the story.)

New Hampshire, of course, has a deep connection to libertarianism with the Free State Project. Johnson's vote totals should not come much as a shock there even given such a small population sample.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

THOSE ARE MITT ROMNEY'S VOTES.

[Alice Bowie]

I am a liberal and I voted for Gary Johnson....GO GARY !!!

[Alice Bowie]

GO GARY JOHNSON.

Being that I live in NYC, I can afford to Vote for Gary Johnson.
If I'd live in a Swing state...to tell the truth...I'd vote for Obama.

[John]

Then don't vote for Johnson vote for Obama. You clearly don't give a shit about anything Johnson stands for. Don't sully Johnson by giving him your completely fake vote. Just be honest and admit you relaly don't give a shit about civil liberties or the drug war as long as your team is in charge.

If you would stop lying to yourself and just admit that you really do want a big oppressive government, you would probably feel a lot better too.

[Scooby]

Why is Red Tony going all libertarian purist and chasing off wishy-washy left-lib votes from GayJay?

[John]

Why are dipshits who have poor reading comprehension cruising the threads today? Is it something to do with election day?

[protefeed]

Why is Red Tony going all libertarian purist and chasing off wishy-washy left-lib votes from GayJay?

Because apparently he thinks that being a complete asshole and insultingly advocating for the opposite of what he actually wants is a good way to make friends.

Or something. Hard to get in Red Tony's head sometimes.

[Calidissident]

Why do I have the feeling that if the word "Romney" was substituted for the word "Obama" in Alice's post, that John would not have said a peep in response?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ideally you want Johnson to win, although pragmatically you would vote for Obama to keep Romney from winning. Is this a correct assessment?

[Ken Shultz]

Did anybody else catch last weeks' This American Life?

It was heavy on the Free State Project references. None of them especially complimentary.

http://www.thisamericanlife.or.....act=2#play

[Brett L]

I am shocked. Shocked! That a progressive radio show hates the idea of anti-progressives trying to immigrate and concentrate to pollute and corrupt their holy priesthood of The State.

[Sudden]

Watching the news shows and they keep showing the last minute campaign rallies. The Obama one he is introduced by Michelle, and when he comes up to stage they "hug" (awkwardly) and it looks like Obama goes in for a kiss and gets completely rejected (the old headbutt to avoid a kiss). A really awkward scene. But I find it hilarious. Thanks to a teleprompter and a deep smokers' voice, SWF think Obama is an alpha. But every interaction he has with another human being proves he is the very epitome beta male. For all the failures of politicians generally, they are almost universally alphas.

[John]

All politicians are wierd. But Obama is maybe the strangest one of them since Nixon.

[Sudden]

I always felt Nixon was the most accurate comparison for Obama of previous presidents.

[Pro Libertate]

Me, too, and that's all kinds of disturbing. I suspect we'll never find out how disturbing, as I fully expect him to get bounced today, but if he's not, I'll be surprised if he's not impeached. There's shit all over this administration.

[BarryD]

Nixon's jowls and Obama's ears would be a good match.

[Rich]

Whenever O hunches down at the podium and stares at the teleprompter through the tops of his eyes, it's like N reincarnated.

[The Late P Brooks]

The juggernaut gathers speed.

[BarryD]

If GJ can't pull 5% in a couple of NH villages, that's not exactly good news.

Of course, voting for Johnson, I figure at least my vote will actually have some impact on the outcome... We'll see how he does here, where Ron Paul is a pretty popular guy and there's a significant leave-me-the-fuck-alone-libertarian contingent.

[John]

I have never quite understood why Paul was able to create such a cult following and Johnson can't seem to connect with anyone. If Paul were running their party he would be getting close to 10%. I would be shocked if Johnson gets over 2%.

[Pro Libertate]

It took Paul a long while. And Johnson has to compete with that to some extent as well.

[BarryD]

Johnson is running as the Libertarian Party candidate.

When he ran for Governor in New Mexico, he won 50-40 over the Democratic incumbent, then was re-elected 55-45, against the Democratic challenger.

NM had a 2:1 Democratic registration advantage, too.

He ran as a candidate for a real party, then. He was able to govern as a libertarian. He vetoed a lot of bills, many of them GOP bills, and by all measures he did a great job. He was praised by Reason, but also by Democrats and Democratic newspapers.

That's the reality people don't want to face.

There are two real parties, and a few pretend parties.

It made sense to start the LP 40 years ago, to see if it could usurp the position of one of the big two. It failed to do so. So did the Green Party, started more recently.

I'm not cheering that reality. I'm recognizing it, unlike a lot of people here.

[Citizen Nothing]

Maybe the LP should fold. Then at least I could say "fuck it" in good conscience and not vote at all.

[Brett L]

That's kind of ignoring the 80s and 90s state Libertarian parties that were often a collection of people without anything holding them together except that they had insanely unrealistic ideas of how to bring about their own personal view of libertopia. Mostly by conducting revolutions and counter-revolutions within the state party power structure. To say that it was unattractive to many people who could have been convinced that maybe Reagan/Bush/Clinton weren't the answer is an understatement.

This year's LP national platform is great. The number of LP candidates for statewide and local office who are committed to anything like that platform is tiny. Its a huge problem that may be irreconcilable due to the LP's greatest numbers being the People Who Hate People demographic.

[BarryD]

That's the thing...

The LP is not a political party, in its current form or the form the state parties took in the '80s and '90s.

It's fun, and it's probably useful. But it's not a political party, in the sense that it's an organization with enough discipline to get people elected.

[Rick Santorum]

The numbers come from two small New Hampshire villages

4.5% of the popular vote from "two small New Hampshire villages." Reason really is desperate.

[Alice Bowie]

GO GARY !!!

[Brent]

Rethuglican Voter Suppression efforts appears to be backfiring

[Rick Santorum]

You're using the term "Rethuglican" and reading Mother Jones, yet you're posting on a libertarian website? Piss off.

[The Hammer]

Demoncrat Voter Fraud efforts appear (syntactically correct, even) to be continuing apace:

http://www.theblaze.com/storie.....ladelphia/

http://pjmedia.com/blog/pjtv-s.....-election/

[Doug Martin]

This is Hurricane Christie's fault

[dinkster]

New Hampshire is top loaded with libertarians.