On June 5, Elon Musk issued a message on X, “It’s time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle.” See this story in The Hill.
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Ever since 1956, a reference book called “America Votes” has been published every two years, after each congressional election. It has been by far the best election returns publication for the United States. Sadly, the publisher has discontinued it and there will be no “America Votes 2024”.
Each volume had the county-by-county vote for every general election within each state for president, U.S. Senate, and Governor. Each volume had maps of the U.S. House boundaries. Each volume had vote returns for every ballot-listed candidate, and for the declared write-ins as well. Each volume also had primary election returns, including presidential primaries. Each volume also had a summary of past U.S. Senate and gubernatorial elections from 1946 to the present day. The books were typically about 525 pages for presidential years, and 475 pages for midterm years.
Most large and medium-sized public libraries in the United States carry the books.
Before the internet existed, states published books containing their own election results, but almost all states have stopped doing that, because the results are generally on state election office websites. But they are often difficult to find and can be difficult to read. Also some states tabulate the write-in votes for declared write-in candidates, but do not put those write-in totals on the state websites.
The Kansas Secretary of State has released the number of votes received by the declared write-in presidential candidates from the November 2024 election. Jill Stein 1,773; Peter Sonski 613; Claudia De la Cruz 270; Cornel West 169; Shiva Ayyadurai 8; Beij Boring 8; Doug Bell 5; Christopher Garrity 2; Ajay Sood 2; John Gibb 1.
Stein was the Green Party nominee; Sonski American Solidariy; De l Cruz Socialism & Liberation.
These results were obtained through the efforts of Tony Roza of the Green Papers. He had to use the state Freedom of Information law to get the results. These results are not on the Kansas Secretary of State’s website. That website doesn’t have the vote by county for the presidential candidates who were on the ballot, either. It just has the statewide totals and a massive file that gives the vote by precinct.
On June 4, the plaintiffs challenging certain Illinois ballot access laws filed this brief in Team Kennedy v Illinois State Board of Elections, n.d., 1:24cv-7027. The plaintiffs are the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. independent campaign, the Illinois Libertarian Party, and independent U.S. House candidate Angel Oakley.
The case challenges the 90-day window for circulating independent and minor party petitions, the law that says circulators who circulated a primary petition anywhere in the U.S. cannot circulate a general election petition, and the requirement that each sheet be notarized.
On June 3, U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi issued a seven-page order in Kim v Hanlon, 3:24cv-1098, the case over New Jersey’s ballot design in primary elections. The order says the new law may not have cured all the problems with the old system. In the old system, some primary candidates were given a far more prominent place on the ballot. The order says the new law still makes it possible for some candidates to be given more favorable treatment. So the case will continue.