On November 18, Ohio held a special U.S. House election in the 11th district to fill a vacant seat. Marcia Fudge was the only candidate on the ballot. She won the election with only 8,450 votes reported so far. The final total will be perhaps 5% higher. There were several declared write-in candidates, but their votes haven’t been tallied yet.
The term is to last only from now until January 3, 2009. Marcia Fudge was elected to the full two-year term two weeks earlier. A technicality forced Ohio to hold a special election on November 18 just to fill this seat that would otherwise be vacant, since the former member, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, had died this year. Independent candidate James Germalic had tried very hard to get on the November 18 ballot. He needed 750 signatures. Although he submitted more than twice as many, he was told he didn’t have enough valid.
Over 50% of the signatures invalid? Sounds like a scam.
That’s typical in Ohio.
I was under the impression that all of the write-in candidates had withdrawn prior to the special election.
I checked the Cuyahoga County election board website on election day.
They had a separate webpage where write-in candidates would be listed.
The page listed NO write-in candidates.