On August 7, the Libertarian Party will file a lawsuit against the District of Columbia Board of Elections, over the Board’s refusal to count write-ins for Bob Barr for president in November 2008. UPDATE: the case was filed on August 7, although the case number can’t be known until Monday. Barr was the only declared write-in presidential candidate in the District. In order to be a declared write-in candidate in D.C., the presidential candidate must file a slate of presidential elector candidates with the Board. Each of the presidential elector candidates must have been a D.C. resident for at least three years. The residency requirement made it impossible for the Constitution Party to file for write-in status in D.C. in 2008. Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney were both on the ballot in D.C.
This will be the second lawsuit filed over a failure to count or tally write-ins. A somewhat similar lawsuit is pending in federal court in Pennsylvania over that state’s refusal to tally any write-in votes for Cynthia McKinney last year, even though she also filed a list of presidential elector candidates with the Pennsylvania Division of Elections.
Indiana has a smart way of not counting write-in votes. They count a few of the votes, and may or may not report them. Then if anyone questions the number of votes, they say you can always pay for a recount if you doubt the results. Of course who has the money for a recount. A lot of the problem just lies with poll workers either not being adequately trained to count write-in votes, or not taking the time to do what is required of them by law.
Oregon will only count the write ins when there is a significant number of write ins to justify it, though I fail to see who decides what constitutes that “significant” number. I also fail to see how anyone would know when that number of votes has come in if no one is counting.
The unspoken wrinkle: make sure there were certified federal electors prior to the election.
The vacationing college student geniuses from the East Coast ASSURED California Nader’s Raiders that the ballot access electoral college designees would suffice for the write in effort.
Yeah, Right, Sure …………
——- Donald R. Lake: Perot Perot Nader Nader Nader
Love the candidate[s] hate the bozos of the campaign
This is great news!
I think PA’s law says that if you’re going to write someone in for president, they most likely won’t count the votes unless they write in all the presidential electors. I hope the Green Party is successful in their suit, as well as the Libertarians in D.C.
Pennsylvania law doesn’t say that. Certain Pennsylvania elections officials once said that, but they don’t anymore. They tallied Chuck Baldwins in 2008; they tallied Ralph Nader write-ins in 2004 and 1996.
Wrinke: I can promise you that Barr had legit elector candidates on his slate.