On March 4, a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., heard one hour and forty minutes of oral argument in Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections, 09-cv-1676. The case had been filed in 2009, after it became apparent that the District of Columbia Board of Elections would not tally the number of write-in votes cast for Bob Barr in the November 2008 election. Barr was a declared write-in presidential candidate, and had filed a slate of candidates for presidential elector, in accordance with the Board’s own procedures for write-in presidential candidates. Barr was the only declared write-in presidential candidate in the District in 2008.

Attorneys for the Board suggested that it would be very difficult to count the write-ins. But, they also said that if Barr and the Libertarian Party wanted to know how many write-ins Barr got, the party could have filed a Freedom of Information Act request, or else could have requested and paid for a recount. The latter ideas seems to counter their first argument. During the course of the argument, the famous U.S. Supreme Court opinion Bush v Gore was mentioned. Bush v Gore said that the Constitution requires elections officials to treat all voters equally.