The U.S. Supreme Court has set a conference date of March 15 to decide whether to hear Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections, 12-836. This is the case on whether election officials must count write-in votes for declared presidential write-in candidates. It stems from the 2008 election, when the Libertarian Party was not on the ballot in D.C. and its presidential nominee, Bob Barr, filed to be a declared write-in candidate. The Board refused to count his write-ins, even though he was the only declared write-in presidential candidate in 2008.

The lower court said the interest of election officials in saving time and bother is more important than the right of all voters to have their valid votes counted.

So far, the D.C. Board of Elections has not even responded to the Libertarian Party’s cert petition. If the U.S. Supreme Court is interested in the case, it will almost certainly ask the D.C. Board to file a response. That would happen in the next two or three weeks.

The U.S. Supreme Court has also set a new conference date to consider whether to hear Danielczyk v U.S., 12-579, on whether it is constitutional to ban all corporations from making any contributions to candidates for federal office. That conference date is February 22.