Massachusetts, like most states, provides that write-in presidential candidates should file a declaration of write-in candidacy if they want their write-ins tallied. But this year, the Secretary of State, for the first time, has refused to tally up the votes for these candidates. There were only five declared write-in presidential candidates in 2020 in Massachusetts. The Secretary of State says if they want to know how many write-ins they received, they should contact each town election office. However, even if they did that, the publications that compile and print the national election returns would not recognize such vote totals, because they wouldn’t be “official”.

Other states that formerly tallied write-ins for declared write-in presidential candidates, and which no longer do, are North Dakota and Virginia.

The write-in presidential candidate in 2020 who probably got the most votes is Brian Carroll, presidential nominee of the American Solidarity Party. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.

New York city will hold a special election to fill a vacancy in the city council, 24th district, on February 2. Under the terms of a new charter amendment passed in 2019, ranked choice voting will be used. The law requires RCV in special elections and in primaries, but not regularly-scheduled general elections.

The district is in Queens. In New York city special elections, candidates are not nominated by parties. Each candidate may have a partisan label, but the label can’t mimic the name of a qualified party. The 24th district special election has seven candidates. Voters may rank up to five candidates.

New York city used ranked choice voting for its city council seats between 1937 and 1945. During that period, each of the five boroughs elected its city councilmembers at-large, so the type of ranked choice voting used 1937-1945 was a form of proportional representation.

The ballot labels for candidates in the Feb. 2, 2021 election are: Mo for the People, A Better Queens, Your Voice Matters, Community First, United Citizens, Unity, Queens Strong, and Soma for Queens.

Maine State Senator David Miramant (D-Knox) has introduced LD 202. It would amend the Maine Constitution to allow ranked choice voting to be used for state office general elections. Currently Maine used RCV for federal office, and primaries for state office. But Maine can’t use RCV for general elections for state office until the state constitution is changed. If the bill passes, then the voters would vote on it.