Michigan Secretary of State Puts Barack Obama on Democratic Presidential Primary Ballot, Against Wishes of Democratic Party

Michigan’s Secretary of State has put President Barack Obama on the Democratic presidential primary ballot, against the wishes of the state Democratic Party. See this story. Also see this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for one of the links. The second story is more accurate than the first story. The first story erroneously says Obama is on the Republican primary ballot.

The Michigan Democratic Party doesn’t want a presidential primary, and will choose delegates in a caucus. UPDATE: here is a third news story, which explains why the Democratic Party is upset.

Ron Paul Placed Second in New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary

On January 12, the New Hampshire Secretary of State posted election returns on his web page from the January 10 presidential primary. It is the custom in New Hampshire to count write-ins in the Democratic presidential primary received by all candidates who appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot, and vice versa. No tally is made for write-in candidates who were not on any party’s presidential primary ballot.

The returns for the Democratic primary can be seen here. Ron Paul received 2,273 write-ins in the Democratic presidential primary, so he placed second in that primary behind President Obama, and ahead of the other thirteen candidates whose names were printed on the Democratic ballot. No one will ever know how many write-ins Hillary Clinton received, since her votes weren’t tallied because she wasn’t on any 2012 primary ballot in New Hampshire. But, the total number of write-ins for people who weren’t on any primary ballot, in the Democratic race, was only 759, so obviously Clinton received a smaller number than 759. Mitt Romney placed third in the Democratic primary, with 1,808 write-ins. Thanks to Robbin Stewart for this news.

Wisconsin Elections Officials Will Need Extra Time to Validate Signatures on Gubernatorial Recall Petition

Wisconsin state election officials say they will need more than the legally mandated 31 days to process the gubernatorial recall petition. This story says the signatures will be turned in next week, and there may be as many as 1,500,000 signatures. The state will not check to see if each signer is a registered voter, but will eliminate duplicate signatures.

Stephen Colbert May Announce as a Write-in Candidate in Republican Presidential Primary in South Carolina

According to this story, Stephen Colbert may announce on his show on the evening of January 12 that he will be a write-in candidate in the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina. The primary is January 21. South Carolina Republican presidential primary ballots contain write-in space. UPDATE: South Carolina Republican presidential primary ballots do not include write-in space. Thanks to Doug Chapin, via Rick Hasen, for this update. FURTHER UPDATE: Colbert did announce, but as this article says, no one will be allowed to vote for him.

Illinois State Legislator Challenged off Republican Primary Ballot

On January 11, Illinois state representative Rosemary Mulligan withdrew from the Republican primary ballot, in the face of a challenge to her primary petition. See this story. She will run as a write-in candidate in the Republican primary. She needs 500 write-ins. No one else is on the Republican primary ballot in her race, which is in the 55th district.

She has been in the legislature since 1992. In November 2010, she was re-elected with 67.6% of the vote. This example shows the absurdity of the idea that voter support for a candidate should be equated with his or her ability to complete a petition. It is very likely she will receive the needed 500 votes in the Republican primary to win a place on the November ballot. If she does not, the lone Democratic candidate will probably be the only name on the November ballot. Thanks to Ken Krawchuk for this news.