Last year, on July 9, 2008, Delaware’s Governor signed SB 164 into law. It provides that write-in candidates who wish to receive a tally of how many write-in votes they received, must file a declaration of write-in candidacy by September 30 of any election year.
Delaware did not permit write-ins in the general election until 1970, when they were legalized. Between 1970 and 2007, all write-in votes were legal votes, and Delaware generally prepared a list of all write-ins and who they were cast for, at least for president. However, that was not done in 2008. No write-in candidate for president filed a declaration of write-in candidacy in Delaware in 2008, probably because no presidential candidate who was not on the Delaware ballot knew about the new requirement. Thanks to Tim San Souci for this news.
Apparently Delaware’s state election officials were also unaware of this last year! On more than one occasion I told by the DE Commissioner of Elections Office, up through the Fall of last year, that Delaware had no filing process for write-in presidential candidates and that Delaware would automatically tally all presidential write-in votes that are cast.