On December 28, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled unanimously that declared write-in presidential candidates must submit the name of a proposed vice-presidential running mate. Carlson v Simon, A16-1533. Here is the 12-page decision, which says, in essence, presidential candidates who qualify to have their names printed on the November ballot must have a running mate, so it is not unfair to require declared write-in presidential candidates to also have a running mate.
The case was filed by Steve Carlson, whose presidential campaign was so insubstantial, he was not on the ballot in any state and he did not file as a declared write-in presidential candidate in any state except Minnesota. It is ironic that anyone sued Minnesota over its write-in presidential procedures, because Minnesota has one of the most permissive such laws in the nation. Write-in presidential candidates need not file until seven days before the election, and they only need one presidential elector candidate. Minnesota is so easy, there were 24 declared write-in presidential candidates, and Minnesota tallied the votes for each of them, except that Carlson received no tally because he didn’t submit a v-p candidate.
States that ought to be sued by declared presidential write-in candidates are the ones that won’t tally the votes of such candidates: Alaska, D.C., Nebraska, North Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. Thanks to Jim Ivey for the link.
Minnesota apparently does not require the permission of Vice-Presidential candidates.
Condoleeza Rice, John Kerry, Jesse Ventura, Amy Klobuchar, and Ajamu Baraka were all write-in vice-presidential candidates.
The elector candidate for the xxxxx-Klubuchar ticket was Al Fraken (sic).
For some reason, Howie Hawkins was the Vice Presidential candidate of the Green Party.
Minnesota has issued an amended Certificate of Ascertainment.
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2016-certificates/pdfs/ascertainment-minnesota.pdf
The amended certificate (first two pages and last page) is at the end of the PDF file.
Thanks for pointing that out Jim–it is truly bizarre that a person can be put on the ballot without permission- and that MN still gets away with disallowing VP substitution.
The easiest way to solve the problem of counting write-ins and whos write-ins get counted would be simply banning them and allow anyone eligible to serve for that position be placed on the ballot if they follow all of the rules to get them on the ballot.
How many States have joint stuff for State Guvs/Lt. Guvs and local mayors/vice-mayors ???
Texas has separate election of Governors and Lieutenant Governors.
Its provisions for write-in candidate for President and Vice-President permit a voter to right in the Presidential candidate OR Vice Presidential candidate. If both names are written-in they must be consistent.
Trump-Kaine or Clinton-Pence would not be valid.
The 12th Amendment does not say that one of the two lists is more important than the other, but simply that they are distinct lists.