On April 21, the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties filed a federal lawsuit against certain Pennsylvania election laws. The Constitution Party of Pennsylvania, et al v Cortes, no. 09-1691, eastern district. It challenges (1) the law that says only parties with registration membership of 15% are entitled to have their nominees placed on the November ballot automatically; (2) the Pennsylvania practice of forcing petitioning candidates and parties to run the risk that they will be exposed to tens of thousands of dollars in court costs if their petitions are rejected; (3) Pennsylvania practice of not providing a state tally for most write-in candidates, and the practice of certain counties of never counting any write-in votes.

The 15% registration threshold is so severe, if it were law in Utah, the Democratic Party would need to petition for all its nominees; if it were law in the District of Columbia, or Massachusetts, or Rhode Island, the Republican Party would need to petition for all its nominees. Although the 15% registration test was nominally upheld in a 1993 U.S. District Court decision, that case introduced no evidence about the 15% registration test.

Most states that permit write-in votes count all the write-ins, for write-in candidates who declared their intention to be write-in candidates in advance of the election. Pennsylvania has no such procedure as a write-in filing declaration. Pennsylvania law plainly requires elections officials to count and tally all write-ins, but that law is routinely ignored. After the November 2008 election, Pennsylvania state officials refused to tally the write-ins for Cynthia McKinney. Although some counties did count them, others did not. Here is a link to the complaint.