On February 3, the Florida Secretary of State released a report on the November 2016 election that, among other things, shows that more than 83,000 Florida voters cast a write-in for President for someone who wasn’t a declared presidential write-in candidate. This figure is not part of the Florida Official Canvass of Votes, and there will be no breakdown as to who received these votes. See this story.

It is likely that Evan McMullin received a fair number of those votes. The Florida deadline for filing for write-in status is in July, an absurdly early deadline. McMullin didn’t declare his candidacy until August 2016 so his write-ins could not be tallied. The July deadline is just one of many silly laws that injured McMullin, yet, sadly, he didn’t file any court challenges to any of these laws. Thanks to Michael Drucker for the link.

Alabama law says when a special congressional or legislative election is to be held, and only one candidate qualified, the election is cancelled. There will be a special election for State House, 67th district, in April. But the only reason the election is being held is because an independent candidate, Toby Gordon, succeeded in petitioning. Otherwise the only candidate would have been the Democratic Party’s choice, and so no election would have been held. See this story.

Ever since 1982, Maryland has required independent candidates to file their petitions in early August of election years. But in 2015, an amendment was made to Maryland election law that, in the eyes of some, forced independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in February of the election year. February is when candidates seeking to run in a party nominating process must file a declaration of candidacy.

On February 1, 2017, the Maryland State Court of Appeals, the highest state court, ruled that the law does not require independent candidates to file anything until August of the election year. Lamone v Schlakman, 2016-50. The state board of elections had taken this position and did not believe an early declaration is needed. But when the Board allowed an independent candidate, Dan Sparaco, to qualify for Baltimore city council in 2016, even though Sparaco had not filed a declaration of candidacy in February 2016, one of the other candidates for the same seat had filed a challenge. The lower state court had removed Sparaco from the ballot, but the State Court of Appeals had put him back on, and had said it would explain its reasoning later. The February 1, 2017 decision now settles the issue.

If the state law did require independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in February, such a law would almost certainly have been held unconstitutional. Maryland is in the Fourth Circuit, and the Fourth Circuit in 1990 struck down a similar South Carolina law.