I wonder about all these "Others." If a Louisiana voter wants to be affiliated with a political party that is not one of the five parties that currently have recognized party status in Louisiana (Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Reform, and Republican), then that voter is supposed to mark "Other" on the voter registration application and write in the name of his party. I don't believe that over 1100 Louisiana voters have written in "Other." My guess is that either (1) those Others are voters who marked "Other" but did not write in a party name or (2) some registrars of voters mistakenly enter "Other" into their databases for any voter who marks "Other" even if that voter does also write in a party name.
In any case, the Other Party is the 7th largest political party in Louisiana and the 2nd largest non-recognized political party in Louisiana.
The largest non-recognized party in Louisiana is the Independent Party, which is statutorily barred from gaining recognized status (18:441B(4)). However, I'm not sure that that statutory bar would withstand a court challenge if a group of Louisiana voters actually organized a group called "the Independent Party" and tried to gain recognized status for their party. Some states do have organized groups called "the Independent Party" and many voters (and even some elected officials) in Louisiana seem to think that registering as an independent means that you are registering as a member of the Independent Party. If Louisiana used the term "Independent" for candidates and voters who have no party affiliation, then the state could argue that giving recognized status to an Independent Party would be too confusing. However, Louisiana does not use that term for candidates and voters who have no party affiliation.
Since the statute does not bar a party called "the Other Party" from gaining recognized status, I wonder what might happen if someone tried to gain recognized party status for the Other Party based on its reaching of the 1000 registrant threshold. Since few, if any, of those registered Others actually intended to be registering in a party called "the Other Party" and since the word "other" is already used generically by the SOS to refer to any candidate affiliated with any non-recognized political party, the SOS would probably refuse to grant recognized party status to the Other Party on the grounds that the name is "deliberately misleading" (18:441B(3)(b)).
According to the Louisiana Secretary of State's Office, these are the numbers of registrants for all the parties on the Louisiana voter registration rolls as of August 1, 2012:
Democratic 1400229
Republican 791588
None 638462
INDEPENDENT 44440
Libertarian 5673
Green Party 1524
Reform Party 1422
OTHER 1137
AMERICANS ELECT 817
CONSERVATIVE 470
INDENPENDENT 436
LIBERAL 275
CHRISTIAN 173
TEA PARTY 155
CONSTITUTION 114
PRUD ACT RSLTS 105
AMERICAN 104
MODERATE 80
OPEN 70
SOCIALIST 62
LILBERTARIAN 61
INDEPENTANT 57
INEDEPENDENT 53
DANSEREAU 48
UNDECIDED 44
CONSTITUTIONAL 35
RADICAL 30
MAJOR 29
REPUBLIC 27
NON PARTISAN 26
BANANA 24
UNAFFILIATED 23
COMMUNIST 22
INDEPEMDENT 22
CONFEDERATE 20
UNDECLARED 20
NEUTRAL 19
LIB 18
TEA 18
PROGRESSIVE 17
FACIST 16
JEDI 16
LIBERTAIN 16
WHIG 15
ANARCHIST 14
INDEPENDENCE 13
CENTRIST 11
3RD PARTY 10
NON-PARTISAN 10
ChrstnSocialist 9
EARTH FIRST 9
PRIMARY 9
REFORMIST 9
FEDERALIST 8
MODERN WHIG 8
PRESIDENTIAL 8
SEGREGATION 8
U S TAXPAYERS 8
LIBRAL 7
NAT SOC 7
TAX PAYERS 7
WARD 7
DEM SOCIALIST 6
INDEPENDENT LA 6
INDIVIDUAL 6
SOUTHERN 6
WHITE 6
BULL MOOSE 5
DEM.REP 5
PATRIOT 5
POPULIST 5
REALIST 5
AEROSMITH 4
BAPTIST 4
BI PARTISAN 4
CONSERVATIST 4
DEMOC SOCIAL 4
DEPENDS 4
FREE 4
NAP 4
NATURAL LAW 4
PEACE&FREEDOM 4
PRIVATE 4
SOCIALIST USA 4
STATES RIGHTS 4
AMERICAN FIRST 3
CATHOLIC REG 3
DEPENDENT 3
LA TAXPAYERS 3
LIBERALIST 3
NATIONAL SOCIA 3
NATIONALIST 3
NON PARTISIAN 3
PERSONAL 3
POLITICAL 3
PRO LIFE 3
AMERICAN INDEP 2
ANARCH 2
ANARCHY 2
BEST 2
BI-PARTISAN 2
BIPARTISAN 2
BLACK 2
CAJUN 2
CHRISTIAN PROGR 2
CIVIL LIBERTAR 2
COMMITTEE 2
COMMON SENSE 2
COMMUNITARIAN 2
CONFIDENTIAL 2
CONS 2
CONSTRUCTIONALI 2
ENVIORMENTAL 2
GREEN PEACE 2
HAZAL 2
JESUS 2
KINGDOM 2
LABOR 2
LIBERAL REP 2
MOOR 2
NATIONAL 2
NATURAL 2
NEW PARTY 2
NON-DENOMIN 2
NUNYA 2
PAR 2
PIRATE 2
Possibilitarian 2
PROHIBITION 2
RASTAFARIAN 2
Republitarian 2
TAXPAYERS 2
THEOCRATIC 2
THIRD PARTY 2
WORKERS 2
AID 1
AM INDEPENDENT 1
AMER MOHICAN 1
AMERICA 1
ANTI-PARTY 1
BLACK PANTHER 1
BLACKPANTHER 1
CHOICE 1
CHRIST CO 1
CHRONIC HIWAII 1
CITIZEN 1
CONSERVANCE 1
CONSERVATED 1
CU TAI WOU 1
DISCORDIAN 1
DIXIECRAT 1
DRUID 1
FAIR 1
FREE RADICAL 1
FREEDOM MOVEMT 1
FREEDOMIST 1
FREEMANS 1
GDI 1
GOD 1
GODS 1
GOVERNMENT 1
GRASS ROOTS 1
GREENTREE 1
GYPSY 1
HONEST 1
HUMAN 1
HUMANITARIAN 1
IMPERIALIST 1
IN BETWEEN 1
INDEPENDANCE 1
INDIVIDUALIST 1
JasonJohnLeMair 1
JEFFERSONIAN 1
KINGDOM OF GOD 1
LEAGUE OF SOUT 1
LIB.REPUBLICAN 1
LIBERAL DEM 1
LIBERAL REPUB 1
LOYALIST 1
MARXIST 1
MEADOW 1
MILLENNIUM 1
MINE 1
MINIMALIST 1
MIXED 1
MONARCHIST 1
MOTHER 1
MUG WUMP 1
MUSLIM 1
NDEPENDENT 1
NONPARTISAN 1
NUTRAL 1
PACIFIC ISLAN 1
PARTY OF ONE 1
PEACE & FREEDO 1
PEOPLES CHOICE 1
PROG DEM 1
PRS 1
RAINBOW 1
REALISTS 1
REP-AMERICAN 1
RIGHT 1
RIGHT TO LIFE 1
RIGHTWING WHIG 1
SOC-DEM 1
SOCIAL 1
SOUTHERN PARTY 1
SOUTHERN REF 1
SPLIT 1
SUB GENIUS 1
SURVIVALIST 1
THEOCRAT 1
UNION 1
UNITED NEUTRAL 1
UNITED REPUBLI 1
UNITED WE ST 1
UNITY 1
USA 1
VETERANS 1
WORKING CLASS 1
Y 1
