Bernie Sanders was recently asked about voters who are thinking about casting a write-in vote for president for him. According to this story, he said “It’s fine with me” as long as it is a state in which there is no doubt which major party nominee will win that state.
The remainder of the article asserts that write-ins for Sanders will be counted in all the states that have no write-in filing procedure. Unfortunately, that is not true. Most of the state election officials in those states traditionally do not tally any statewide write-in totals. The counties in those states often do, but not consistently. Oregon and Washington have laws saying write-ins are not tallied unless there is a suggestion that the write-in candidate may have won. Rhode Island is the only state without a write-in filing procedure that routinely publishes a state tally of the number of all presidential write-ins cast. Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Vermont Secretaries of State in recent years have arbitrarily picked out a few presidential write-in candidates and tallied statewide totals for them, but not for other candidates. One of the virtues of write-in declaration of candidacy laws is that there is no arbitrariness in deciding which write-ins to tally. Another virtue of such laws is that, normally, the state requires the presidential candidate to submit a list of presidential elector candidates.
All of these problems go away if we return to voting for presidential electors instead of national candidates. We need to go back to local politics. Decentralize federal elections!
The absurdity of Bernie Sanders giving his blessing to write-in his name in “safe states” while scolding people who want to vote for an actual leftist candidate should be enough of a lesson to his supporters that his “revolution” is doomed to failure and always was.
Alabama also publishes all write in votes.
Is it possible then people can write in self styled white nationalist Martin Lindstendt of Granby.Misdouri a former Libertarian Reform and Republican candidate for local and state offices in Missouri.I would encourage it.Christian Identity voters need a voice.
Maybe people should write in Rand Paul name to.Everybody with different political and religious interest should have Candidates that represent their views.
Kevin, Alabama Secretary of State has never tallied up the statewide vote for a write-in candidate. The counties mostly include the write-in votes in their own reports to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State’s web page includes those pages from the county reports. But the Secretary of State won’t tally a statewide total for any write-in candidate. If a private individual compiles a statewide total, based on looking at the county reports, the publications that publish the national votes for president won’t print that total, because it isn’t “official.” Alabama wouldn’t even tally up write-ins for Lyndon Johnson in 1964, when Johnson was off the ballot because the Alabama Democratic Party refused to nominate him.
Sorry that I didn’t clarify. I meant to say that the state publishes each county’s report in a single appendix.
http://www.allenbwest.com/matt-palumbo/bombshell-report-accuses-google-of-rigging-this-for-hillary
Is there any jurisdiction in the country where a voter can write in any name he wished for any person living or dead, real or fictitious, and have it officially recorded. If I want to write in Jesus of Nazareth, Adolf Hitler, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Taylor Swift, Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden….etc, etc….Could this happen?
States should count all votes, for whomever the voter chooses.
Clay, yes, Rhode Island.
I decided that a vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party is more productive for the progressive cause. I cast an early vote to contribute to the Green Party’s vote total for both ballot access and federal funding.
Richard, can you provide a link to past Presidential results in Rhode Island?
As I recall, Rhode Island Secretary of State doesn’t post the presidential write-ins on-line and one must ask for it on paper. The FEC book of election returns for November 2012 didn’t bother to reprint the whole list. It just has Ron Paul 617, Hillary Clinton 64, Mickey Mouse 14, others 686.
14th Amdt,Sec. 2 — still a part of the de facto DEAD gerrymander USA Const.
I wonder if a fictitious character has ever won an election.
There have been a few U.S. elections in which animals were elected. They were all for local office in very small jurisdictions.
Dem Rep
Got your point. I note trading is now two to one on voting exchanges between Ohio and California. However Governor Brown would not call the legislature back
for a joint resolution to fix the vote count for ascertainment on the GOP and AIP nominees for the
Office of Presidential Electors (which are Offices of Profit
under California Law). One can get two Johnson votes in California for one Clinton vote in Ohio. My expectation
when it is more widely known that there is no why that
Trump can get Presidential Elector votes in California because Brown will not call the legislature into session
for a joint resolution the exchange will go to three votes
for Johnson in California to one Clinton vote in Ohio. This because the California vote is just a beauty contest
now.
Bernie Sanders has gone from being a hero to being a sad sack. From being a champion to being a lap dog. for Clinton. And his new 501c4, Our Revolution is another in a long line of excuses for being a lap dob. Rainbow Coalition , Progressive Democrats of America, Democracy for America etc etc.
What are those alleged *NO DOUBT* States — with all sorts of New Age folks LYING to the moron pollsters ???