Last week, Nebraska voters who desire to cast a write-in vote for Tom Osborne for Governor this November filed a lawsuit against the state’s “sore loser” law for write-in candidates. Rodgers v Heineman, 33-06-0018.

Tom Osborne lost the Republican primary for Governor last May, but some of his die-hard supporters still want to organize a write-in campaign for him in November (even though Osborne himself says he isn’t interested). Nebraska law requires write-in candidates to file a declaration of write-in candidacy if they want their write-ins counted, and also bars individuals who lost a partisan primary from filing such a write-in declaration.

However, in 1912, the Nebraska Supreme Court said, “The right of the voter to vote at the general election for whom he pleases cannot be limited”, and no subsequent decision of that court has reversed that ruling.