On November 16, the Wyoming Secretary of State finished the official canvass of the November 8, 2016 election. See it here. Wyoming in recent years has been the first state to finish, and it appears that is true again this year. Wyoming has the smallest population of any state.
The canvass show that 6,904 voters cast a write-in vote for president, but does not reveal who received those votes. The county election officials can probably provide this information, however. The write-in total is 2.70% of the total vote cast, and is greater than the number of votes received by three candidates who were on the ballot.
My guess is that many of the 7k write ins were for McMullin.
No write ins were listed, but given the good vote turnout for him in next door Utah and Idaho, I’m guessing you are not too far off.
2.7% of votes were write-ins.
The counties where the write-in totals were over 2.7%: Albany (3.7%, Laramie), Big Horn (4.4%), Carbon (2.7%, Rawlins), Fremont (2.8%), Lincoln (5.4%, Idaho/Utah border), Park (3.05%), Sweetwater (2.7%, Rock Springs), Teton (3.6%, Idaho border), and Uinta (4.9%, Utah border).
So, all 4 counties bordering east Idaho or Utah had a write-in percentage above the state average. Only Big Horn/Fremont/Park weren’t bordering Idaho/Utah, or a county that has I-80.
“Write-ins” defeated Clinton 82-66 in Afton 2-1 in Lincoln County, WY (near the Idaho border).
Park and Big Horn counties have a higher than average Mormon population even though they touch Montana and not Idaho or Utah, so I expect McMuffin is the source of the write-ins there. That leaves Fremont County which has the only significant native American population in Wyoming which might be relevant (or not).
looking at the precinct returns from Fremont, Hillary won 3 of the 4 Fremont precincts where “Write-in” topped 5%. Clinton won Arapahoe School 8-1, Ethete Indian High School 13-1, and Ft. Washakie School Admin 4-1. Trump won Luthy Heritage Hall – Firegrounds 17-1.
Those 3 Clinton precincts were her only precinct victories in Fremont County. So those write-ins could be people casting invalid write-ins for Bernie Sanders or McMullin voters on Wind River.
I’m going to make a guess that McMullin got about 75% of those write-in votes.
State law does not provide for tabulation of write-in votes unless it will effect the outcome of a race. Since it is in the section dealing with the official canvass, I suspect that county election officials have an affirmative duty to not tally write-in votes.
There is a provision that would let any person request a tally of a write-in candidate in a county, after payment of an administration fee, if filed within two days of the election. It is conceivable that newspapers were aware of that possibility.
I noticed in one county that there were several precincts where Gary Johnson received more votes than Hillary Clinton. There are probably many more such places.
Wyoming is one more area which should NOT have become a State due to its low low low population.
Looks like the CP is making headway in WY. I noticed that Cummings out polled the LP candidate for US Congress by more than 1,300 votes. It was encouraging to see that. He won by a huge margin in Park County.
In King County, Texas, Clinton and Johnson tied (with 3.1% of the total vote each).
In 2014, the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate had double the votes of the Democratic candidate.
Despite Wyoming law on canvassing, in 2000 the Secretary of State tallied the Ralph Nader write-ins.
There are no “Nader” votes indicated on the Certificate of Ascertainment nor the general abstract of votes for 2000.
Also note the canvassing procedure was changed in 2002 (2002 chapter 18 section 2). 22-16-103 was extensively reworked, but the new version made it clear that a step-wise procedure was to be used, where first the total number of write-in votes is to be determined, and then a determination of whether to tally the write-in votes is made.
The 2002 legislation added the provision in 22-16-106(c) that anyone may pay to have write-in votes tallied.
In 2011, the legislature added a sentence to 22-5-501 (declaration of write-in candidacy) directing write-in candidates to 22-16-106(c) if they wished their votes to be tallied.
Perhaps in 2000, votes for write-in candidates were tallied, and then when their total was summed did not affect the results were omitted from the official results.
Am I correct in my understanding that write-in candidates do not have to file until two days after the general election?
Did Nader file in 2000 as a write-in candidate (paying a $200 fee), rather than a 2% petition? Did Sanders file as a write-in candidate prior to November 10? What about Evan McMullin?
Federal Elections 2000, the FEC’s election returns book for the 2000 election, has the Nader write-ins. The book says on page 31 that the Nader write-ins were canvassed because Nader asked for a write-in tally within two days after the election.
America Votes 24 also has those write-ins.
The footnote on page 31 does not say that the Nader voters were canvassed. Read it carefully.
The Nader votes would not have been included as part of the Nader count under the flawed NPV scheme.
If I am reading Wyoming statute correctly, a write-in candidate does not have to make a declaration of candidacy until two days after the election, and pay the fee for a statewide candidate ($200).
Further, Wyoming canvassing statutes were modified in 2002 (Session Laws 2002 c 18 s 2), by clarifying the sequence in which write-in votes are counted and handled, and added a provision that a write-in candidate who had not affected the results of an election had to pay to have them counted. And in 2011, a sentence was added to direct that a write-in candidate who would not affect the result, would have to pay for the tallying.
I doubt that Bernie Sanders filed as a write-in candidate by November 2010. Evan McMullin may have (you have some contacts with the campaign do you not?), but he might not have been willing to pay the fee to have his votes counted.
It seems obvious that the Nader votes were canvassed, because otherwise they would not have been included in the FEC’s election returns. The reason the FEC started tallying the national popular vote for president was to be able to decide which parties are eligible for general election public funding.
If any write-in candidate were to challenge the Wyoming law requiring payment to have write-ins counted, that candidate would probably win. The US Supreme Court said in the poll tax cases, and the mandatory filing fee cases, that the 14th amendment does not allow the states to charge money for individuals to exercise voting rights. Furthermore, the Wyoming fee to count write-in votes is discriminatory, because Wyoming does not charge ballot-listed candidates to pay to have their votes counted.
It seems obvious that the Nader votes were NOT canvassed because (1) they were not included in the Certificate of Ascertainment;
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2000_certificates/ascertainment_wyoming.html
and (2) the FEC footnote that YOU directed me to said that they were not canvassed.
The purpose of an election is to determine who is elected or nominated. If it is not necessary to tally votes for write-in candidates it is a waste of money to do so. Votes for on-ballot candidates can be machine tabulated, and the candidates must demonstrate a modicum of support to be placed on the ballot. In 2000 in Wyoming, candidates Buchanan, Browne, Phillips, and Hagelin qualified in Wyoming. If Ralph Nader had been a serious candidate in 2000, he could have qualified, and he likely would have got more votes.
What you are arguing for is for Donald Duck to pay a $200 fee to be a write-in candidate, and then have 350,000 ballots examined to see if they were for Duck. It is obvious Duck did not win.
The U.S. Supreme Court said in U.S. v Classic, “Every voter’s vote is entitled to be counted once. It must be correctly counted and reported. As stated in U.S. v Mosley, ‘the right to have one’s vote counted has the same dignity as the right to put a ballot in a box.” Also see Gray v Sanders.
Of course Nader’s Wyoming votes were counted. How else did the FEC determine that he got 4,625 write-ins in Wyoming in 2000? How else did Congressional Quarterly’s America Votes know that? Those two sources will not print any write-in totals unless the state confirms them. Those two sources will not include Alabama presidential write-ins, even though the Alabama Secretary of State puts the write-ins up on its web page. That is because the Alabama Secretary of State won’t tally up the state totals. Instead anyone can look at the county totals and add them up himself, but those private tallies aren’t “official.” By contrast, the Wyoming write-ins for Nader were “official” because the Secretary of State furnished the state total.
Wyoming does count write-in votes. It does not tally them if they would have no affect on the result. US v Mosley is apposite – in that case county election officials simply discarded returns from certain precincts, most likely for the Republican candidate.
Since you appear to not have actually read the FEC footnote, I will repeat it here:
“* Under state law, the official canvass will only include write-in votes if the total votes for write-in candidates may affect the outcome of the election. However, a formal request for a candidate’s write-in votes to be counted may be filed with the appropriate election officer not later than two days after the election. The results shown above for Nader, although not part of the official state canvass, were tallied in accordance with such a request.”
You seem to be claiming that the official canvass is not official. You seem to be claiming that the Certificate of Ascertainment is not official. Am I understanding you correctly?
Congressional Quarterly is a private for-profit company. If they wish to have a tally of write-in votes for particular candidates in Wyoming, they may file a request, and pay for the tally. The request does not have to be made by a candidate. FOIL requests typically permit a reasonable administrative fee.
Likewise, the Federal Elections Commission could make the request, and pay for it.
I don’t know why Congressional Quarterly does not include the write-in results from Alabama. I suspect Dave Leip would include them if you were to tabulate them.
The Federal Election Commission could do the same. Have you ever suggested to them that they should do so?
The Federal Election Commission started tallying the presidential vote in order to be able to determine which presidential campaigns are entitled to general election funding. Ralph Nader’s Wyoming votes were included by the FEC. If Nader had been extremely close to polling 5% of the 2000 presidential vote (thus making it possible for his campaign to receive a large check from the FEC in December 2000, plus another large check for the 2004 Green nominee) his Wyoming votes would have counted. Therefore, from the point of view of the federal government, those write-ins are official.
Appointment of presidential electors is solely the responsibility of the States (other than those for the District of Columbia). The only responsibility under the Constitution is for Congress to count the electoral votes. In that role, they have assigned certain responsibilities to the National Archives to collect the Certificates of Ascertainment and Certificates of Votes. If Congress thought that Ralph Nader received votes in 2000, they should have brought the issue up in January 2001 when they counted the electoral votes.
Since a condition of receiving federal subsidies is appearing on at least 10 state ballots, Congress may not have wanted to include write-in votes. Congress does not define “popular vote” in 26 USC Chapter 95.
Perhaps the FEC is a rogue agency. It certainly can not be considered to have the “point of view of the federal government.”
Incidentally, while reading through the debate on the constitutional amendments proposed in 1789, one proposal was to restrict Congress from regulating congressional elections. It only narrowly failed.