On April 10, the Alabama House unanimously passed H332. It requires write-in candidates to file a declaration of candidacy, before the election, if they wish their write-ins to be counted.

Overall, this is probably a gain for voting rights, not a loss. Assuming the bill is passed into law, write-in candidates who file the declaration of candidacy will get a state tally of how many write-ins they got. Under current law, the Secretary of State doesn’t do a statewide tally, although at least in 2006 she included the write-in results (on the internet) as reported by each county. For instance, last year, anyone who wanted to know how many write-ins Loretta Nall (Libertarian write-in candidate for Governor) received, had to examine each county’s reports and add them all up. Under H332, the Secretary of State would have done this work and included the total in the official state results. Thirtysix other states also have a write-in declaration of candidacy law.

However, H332 is flawed because it requires the write-in declaration to be submitted 90 days before the general election. This is far too long, and partly defeats one purpose of having write-in space on the ballots, which is to take account of last-minute events that might propel someone to get into the race in September or October.