By MARY SELL, Alabama Daily News 

For the first time in 20 years, Alabama voters will see Libertarian candidates and some three-person contests on their Nov. 8 General Election ballots.

There are more than 50 Libertarians running for office, including U.S. Senate and governor, and legislative seats.

Libertarian leadership said the party wanted to get candidates in as many races as possible this cycle.

It’s been a bit since we’ve seen three-person races on a November ballot, so let’s review the rules. While a third-party candidate in Georgia could force a General Election runoff between Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, that can’t happen here. Unlike in primary elections, Alabama doesn’t have runoffs in General Elections. Plurality wins, Secretary of State John Merrill said.

There are 11 Libertarians running for state Senate and 27 seeking House seats, including in one of the more competitive legislative races between a Republican and Democrat.

The House District 10 seat is open because of the retirement of long-time Republican Rep. Mike Ball. Republican David Cole and Democrat Marilyn Lands have both raised significant amounts of money in their campaigns for the Madison County district that Ball has said is now more purple than when he was first elected. Elijah Boyd is the Libertarian. He has not filed any campaign finance reports.

“That race may be so close that the Libertarian candidate does make a difference,” said Jess Brown, a retired Athens State University political science professor.

While Libertarians’ limited government message may resonate with some voters, especially Republicans, Brown said they largely haven’t had the money or manpower to spread that message this cycle.

Without a lot of competitive races at the top of the ballot, Brown doesn’t expect a high voter turnout Nov. 8.

“(District 10) could be so close, a token number of votes could decide who is the plurality winner,”  Brown said.

Many of us learned in June during the Tom Whatley/Jay Hovey State Senate saga that tied primary races can be settled by a coin flip. What happens if there is a tie in a statewide or legislative race in the General Election?

Per 17-12-22 of the Code of Alabama, the Legislature “by joint vote” selects the winner. That’s never happened, Merrill said.

Other legislative races with three candidates on ballot:

• HD41, where incumbent Republican Corley Ellis faces Democrat Chris Nelson and Libertarian Matthew Gregory Morris Jr.
• HD43, where incumbent Republican Arnold Mooney faces Democrat Prince Cleveland and Libertarian Jason Newell Davis Burr.
• House District 57, vacated by Merika Coleman who is running for state Senate, the candidates are Republican Delor Baumann, Democrat Patrick Sellers and Libertarian Manijeh Nancy Jones.
• In Senate District 23, Republican Michael Nimmer, Democrat Robert Stewart and Libertarian Portia Shepherdare running for the seat vacated this year by Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier.
• In Senate District 29, incumbent Republican Donnie Chesteen faces Republican Nathan Mathis and Libertarian Floyd “Pete” McBroom.

Updated Race Charts

With 13 days to go until Election Day, here are the updated races for Congress, constitutional offices, House of Representatives and Senate. The Libertarian candidates have been certified by the Secretary of State and will be on the ballot.

U.S. Congress

Constitutional Offices

Office	Republican	Democrat	Libertarian
Governor	Kay Ivey (i)	Yolanda Flowers	James "Jimmy" Blake
Lt. Governor	Will Ainsworth (i)	-	Ruth Paige Nelson
Attorney General	Steve Marshall	Wendell Major	-
Secretary of State	Wes Allen	Pamela J. Laffitte	Jason "Matt" Shelby
State Treasurer	Young Boozer (i)	-	Scott Hammond
State Auditor	Andrew Sorrell	-	Leigh Lachine
Ag Commissioner	Rick Pate (i)	-	Jason Clark
Supreme Court Place 1	Greg Cook	Anita Kelly	-
PSC Place 1	Jeremy Oden (i)	-	Ron Bishop
PSC Place 2	Chip Beeker (i)	-	Laura Lane
Board of Education Place 2	Tracie West (i)	-	-
Board of Education Place 4	-	Yvette Richardson (i)	-
Board of Education Place 6	Marie Manning	-	-
Board of Education Place 7	-		Gavin Goodman
Board of Education Place 8	Wayne Reynolds(i)	-	-

Alabama House

District	Republican	Democrat	Libertarian*
1	Phillip Pettus (i)
2	Ben Harrison
3	Kerry Underwood	Wesley Thompson
4	Parker Moore (i)
5	Danny Crawford (i)
6	Andy Whitt (i)		Greg Turner
7	Ernie Yarbrough	Mose Jones, Jr	Marc Durocher
8	Terri Collins (i)		Angela Walser
9	Scott Stadthagen (i)		Gregory Bodine
10	David Cole	Marilyn Lands	Elijah Boyd
11	Randall Shedd (i)
12	Corey Harbison (i)	James Fields
13	Matt Woods		Mark Davenport
14	Tim Wadsworth (i)
15	Leigh Hulsey	Richard Rouco
16	Kyle South (i)
17	Tracy Estes (i)
18	Jamie Kiel (i)		Talia Shimp
19	Laura Hall (i)
20	James Lomax
21	Rex Reynolds (i)
22	Ritchie Whorton (i)
23	Mike Kirkland
24	Nathaniel Ledbetter (i)
25	Phillip Rigsby	Mallory Hagan
26	Brock Colvin	Ben Alford
27	Wes Kitchens (i)	Herb Neu
28	Mac Butler
29	Mark Gidley		Clifford Foy Valentin
30	Craig Lipscomb (i)
31	Troy Stubbs
32	Evan Jackson	Barbara Boyd (i)
33	Ben Robbins (i)	Fred Crum
34	David Standridge (i)
35	Steve Hurst (i)
36	Randy Wood (i)
37	Bob Fincher (i)
38	Debbie Wood (i)		Charles Temm Jr.
39	Ginny Shaver (i)
40	Chad Robertson	Pam Howard
41	Corley Ellis (i)	Chris Nelson	Matthew Gregory Morris Jr.
42	Van Smith (i)		Doug Ward
43	Arnold Mooney (i)	Prince Cleveland	Jason Newell Davis Burr
44	Danny Garrett (i)		John Wiley Boone
45	Susan DuBose		Kari Mitchell Whitaker
46	David Faulkner (i)
47	Mike Shaw	Christian Coleman
48	Jim Carns (i)		Bruce Stutts
49	Russell Bedsole (i)
50	Jim Hill (i)
51	Allen Treadaway (i)
52		John Rogers (i)
53		Anthony Daniels (i)
54		Neil Rafferty (i)
55		Fred “Coach” Plump
56		Ontario Tillman	Carson Lester
57	Delor Baumann	Patrick Sellers	Manijeh Nancy Jones
58		Rolanda Hollis (i)
59		Mary Moore (i)
60		Juandalynn Givan (i)	PJ French
61	Ron Bolton		Damon Pruet
62	Bill Lamb	Brenda Cephus
63	Cynthia Almond (i)	Samuel Adams
64	Donna Givens		Jeff May
65	Brett Easterbrook (i)	Marcus Caster
66	Alan Baker (i)
67		Prince Chestnut (i)
68	Fred Kelley	Thomas Jackson (i)
69	Karla Knight Maddox	Kelvin Lawrence (i)
70		Chris England (i)
71		A.J. McCampbell
72		Curtis Travis
73	Kenneth Paschal (i)
74	Charlotte Meadows (i)	Phillip Ensler
75	Reed Ingram (i)
76		Penni McClammy (i)	Scott Manges
77		Tashina Morris (i)
78		Kenyatte Hassell (i)
79	Joe Lovvorn (i)		Amanda Frison
80	Chris Blackshear (i)
81	Ed Oliver (i)
82	Lennora "Tia" Pierrot	Pebblin Warren (i)
83		Jeremy Gray (i)
84		Berry Forte (i)
85	Payne Henderson	Dexter Grimsley (i)
86	Paul Lee (i)
87	Jeff Sorrells (i)
88	Jerry Starnes		Justin “Tyler” May
89	Marcus Paramore
90	Chris Sells (I)
91	Rhett Marques (i)
92	Matthew Hammett	Steve Hubbard
93	Steve Clouse (i)
94	Jennifer Fidler		Margaret “Maggie” Helveston
95	Frances Holk-Jones	Richard Brackner
96	Matt Simpson (i)
97		Adline Clarke (i)
98		Napoleon Bracy (i)
99		Sam Jones (i)
100	Mark Shirey		Peyton Warren
101	Chris Pringle (i)
102	Shane Stringer (i)
103		Barbara Drummond
104	Margie Wilcox (i)		Jon Dearman
105	Chip Brown (i)		Mark Lewis

Alabama Senate