This article in the Washington Post’s The Fix explains new political science research by Andrew Hall and Daniel Thompson, of Stanford. Their research shows that when one of the major parties nominates an extremist for U.S. House, that nominee is more likely to lose the general election. This is partly because the extremist candidate’s existence causes increased voter turnout among the supporters of the other major party.

Ronald Miller was a write-in candidate for the Taylor, Michigan School District in November 2016. Shortly after the election, he checked the election returns in each precinct and learned that he had won one of the seats. However, when the city’s votes were officially tallied by the Wayne County Board of Commissioners, the Board excluded all write-ins in which his name wasn’t spelled properly. Therefore, the Board determined that he was not elected.

He sued to overturn the vote tally. On July 27, a state court agreed that Miller had been elected. See this story. For over 130 years, it is been basic law in the United States that the intent of the voter controls, when write-ins are being counted; perfect spelling is not required.

Taylor, Michigan, is a city of 63,000 population, near Detroit. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.