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Featured article: LP News January/February 1981
Clark-Koch Top 900,000
LP Picks Up Three Seats in Alaska
Months of hard work and intense preparation by thousands of Libertarian activists across the country paid off on November 4th with the Libertarian presidential ticket of Ed Clark and David Koch garnering 921,000 votes nationwide. In related election returns, three Libertarians were elected to major public offices in Alaska and the LP emerged with ballot status in twelve states.
Clark’s vote total becomes more impressive when voter turnout is taken into effect. According to an official vote count released by the Federal Election Commission on Janauary 5, 1981, the voter turnout in last November’s Presidential election was the lowest in 32 years, with only 53.95 of the eligible voters casting ballots. Thus while Clark had more than five times the vote of Libertarian presidential candidate Roger MacBride in 1976 — MacBride received 173,000 votes — he received those votes from among a proportionally smaller section of the electorate.
Clark also surpassed the 1976 Independent candidacy of former Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy...