December 2000

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2000 ELECTION RESULTS BEST EVER!

	NLP Congressional candidate Josette Green waves a placard at an intersection in Pinellas Park, Florida, to alert voters to her candidacy. Her efforts paid off: she garnered more than 14% of the vote on November 7.
	Presidential candidate John Hagelin (right) and his running mate Nat Goldhaber address enthusiastic supporters at the Natural Law Party Coalition Convention.

The results of this remarkable 2000 election demonstrate the growing strength of the Natural Law Party and our Independent coalition as a national political force. Over 100 million Americans voted in this millennial election, and our Natural Law­Independent coalition candidates received over 1.4 million votes nationwide.

In total, over 1 million voters nationwide cast ballots for our candidates.

The average vote percentages were 3.2%, with many candidates winning 10%­20% of the vote, and several winning 20%­30%. These figures represent the highest average vote totals and the highest average percentages for Natural Law candidates in any previous election, anywhere in the world. We send our sincere congratulations to all our candidates across the nation.

Our top vote getters are John Eastman (Ohio: U.S. Senate) with 69,152; Peggy Palms (North Carolina: Attorney General) with 66,691; Brian Rees (California: U.S. Senate) with 52,644; Tom Groover (Colorado: State Board of Education) with 50,487; Cathy Carter (North Carolina: Lieutenant Governor) with 49,323; Lisa Anne Puccio (Michigan: State Board of Regents) with 47,464; Jeff Graham (New York: U.S. Senate) with 42,247; and Sam Farling (Florida: U.S. Congress) with 41,975.

Candidates with the highest percentages are Nancy Miller (Ohio: Green County Commissioner) with 30%; Kent Hyde (South Dakota: State Senate) with 23%; Ann Hope Vegors (Idaho: State Assembly) with 22%; Carlos Perez (Washington: State Assembly) with 20%; Synthia Jackson (Ohio: State Assembly) with 18%; Debra Whiting (Utah: State Assembly) with 18%; Regina Burch (Ohio: U.S. Congress) with 17%; and Mary Mellen (Minnesota: State Assembly) with 17%.

The wide national distribution of these successful races indicates the depth and strength of grassroots support for our Natural Law coalition across the country.

Even in the highly competitive U.S. Congressional races, our candidates did very well, with five winning more than 10% of the vote. These five are Regina Burch (Ohio, District 3) with 17%; Sam Farling (Florida, District 14) with 15%; Josette Green (Florida, District 10) with 14%; Nat Adam (California, District 43) with 11%; and Frank N. Schmit (California, District 40) with 10%.

Seven Natural Law Party state affiliates deserve special recognition for the success of their campaigns and organizational efforts. California (Louise Allison and Judy Barath Black, NLP co-chairs) led the pack with 380,000 NLP votes, followed by Ohio (Zanna Feitler, chair) with 176,000, Michigan (Bill and Gail Quarton, co-chairs) with 125,000, Colorado (Dr. Cheryl Beckett, chair) with 117,000, North Carolina (Cathy Carter, chair) with 115,000, Florida (Sam Farling, chair) with 97,000, and New York (Frank MacKay, chair) with 95,000.

Thanks to the successful statewide campaigns of our candidates, the Natural Law Party won automatic ballot access for the next election in Montana (Rebecca Scott, State Auditor, 5%), Utah (Elliot J. Hulet, State Treasurer, 4%), and Oregon (Leonard Zack, State Treasurer, 2%). Plus, we will maintain our ballot access in California, Nevada, Colorado, Mississippi, South Carolina, Delaware, Vermont, Hawaii, Idaho, and Florida.

These results are actually rather remarkable, considering that only about 15% of actual voters ever heard or saw our Presidential candidate John Hagelin or our other Natural Law candidates on television, due to the media's habitual shutout of third parties. Therefore, a large percentage (about 20%) of voters who were exposed to our candidates supported them with their votes and were even willing to risk their votes on a candidate they knew would not win.

The Presidential Race

The notable exception to these high percentages was the Presidential race. All third-party Presidential vote totals (Nader, Buchanan, Browne, Hagelin, and Phillips) were severely suppressed, averaging 60% less than polls predicted even a few days before the election. This Presidential election was the closest in U.S. history, one that will ultimately be decided by less than 1000 votes. Many people were simply unwilling to cast their vote for a third-party candidate.

The Hagelin/Goldhaber campaign tried to combat this "lesser of evils" psychology, but the mass hysteria swept up even some of our strongest supporters. John Hagelin, who had received 110,000 votes in 1996, received similar numbers this year once absentee ballots were tallied--despite a substantial increase in national support and exposure during this 2000 campaign. The lack of ballot access in the key states of Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, and Connecticut--resulting from legal battles with the Buchanan forces --also affected the vote count.

Thus, from the standpoint of the Presidential vote, the 2000 election was truly anomalous. The vote totals did not reflect the sentiments of the people, which were more accurately expressed by the much higher percentages garnered by our other Natural Law­Independent coalition candidates.

However, John Hagelin succeeded in his effort to forge the largest coalition of third parties in U.S. history. He won the endorsements of Ross Perot's wing of the Reform Party and the Independence Party of New York. Governor Jesse Ventura, head of the Independence Party of Minnesota, also endorsed Dr. Hagelin's candidacy. This powerful political coalition will provide a solid foundation for future campaigns.

The Future

These successes from the presidential campaign, combined with the fast-growing support for all our Natural Law­Independent coalition candidates, demonstrate that our vision of a powerful national political coalition dedicated to commonsense solutions is now a reality.

As always, the Natural Law Party will not close its doors now that the election is over. We will continue to work with all independent-minded voters and candidates to expand this coalition and to demand foundational reforms--crucial solutions in education, health, crime, trade, foreign policy, and the environment--that cannot wait four more years. Please continue to work with us!