On January 17, the Rhode Island State Board of Elections released the presidential write-ins from November 2016. Rhode Island has no write-in filing procedure for president, and tallies anyone who got at least 5 write-ins. Evan McMullin received 732 write-ins, and Darrell Castle received 47. Therefore, their national totals are: McMullin 732,001; Castle 203,024.

Also, Michael Maturen received 33 write-ins in Rhode Island. No one else who was actually running, and who was not on the ballot in Rhode Island, received any.

Among non-candidates, Bernie Sanders easily got the most write-ins: 3,074. To see the entire list, e-mail me at richardwinger@yahoo.com.

In the November 2016, only four parties (other than the Democratic and Republican Parties) had legislative nominees on the ballot in more than a single state.

Libertarians for State Senate polled 549,605 votes in 2016, compared with the 2014 State Senate nominee total of 328,020.

Libertarians for lower house of state legislatures polled 804,938 in 2016, compared with the 2014 total of 542,570.

Greens for State Senate in 2016 polled 90,539, compared with 58,416 in 2014.

Greens for lower house in 2016 polled 157,056, compared with 52,509 in 2014.

Constitution nominees for State Senate in 2016 polled 24,046, compared with 35,737 in 2014.

Constitution nominees for lower house in 2016 polled 40,199, compared with 54,961 in 2014.

Working Families nominees for State Senate in 2016 polled 173,501, compared with 169,927 in 2014.

Working Families nominees for lower house in 2016 polled 205,788, compared with 167,797 in 2014.

In 2016, the Libertarian nominee for state legislature who received the highest percentage was Dennis Allan Hof of Pahrump, Nevada. He got 39.24%. Second Libertarian finisher was William James Hunt of Bristol, Rhode Island, who got 38.28%. Both ran in two-person races.

In 2016, the Green legislative nominee with the highest percentage was Nick Nikhilananda of Molokai, Hawaii, who got 32.26%.

In 2016, the Constitution legislative nominee with the highest percentage was Pamela Goode of Palmer, Alaska, who got 37.18%.

This Vanity Fair article by Nick Bilton suggests clues that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, wants to run for President some day. It also suggests that he would be capable. The article does not give any hint as to Zuckerberg’s partisan affiliation. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.