Pennsylvania State Elections Office Tallies Presidential Write-ins for Three Candidates: McMullin, Sanders, and Kasich

On December 23, the Pennsylvania state elections office released some information about presidential write-ins. The office says there are 6,472 for Evan McMullin; 6,060 for Bernie Sanders; and 302 for John Kasich. The office says in addition there are 37,242 more presidential write-ins. Anyone who wants more information must visit Harrisburg and ask to look at the reports from the counties.

The state office did not break down the write-ins by county, so it isn’t possible at this point to know if all counties reported any write-ins.

Pennsylvania has no write-in declaration of candidacy law, so the state always makes a somewhat arbitrary decision as to which write-ins to tally, similar to the New Hampshire process. It would be desirable if Pennsylvania had a write-in declaration of candidacy law. It is the only populous state that does not have such a law.

Democrats Outpoll Republicans in U.S. Senate Races by 10,512,669 Votes, but Republicans Win 22 of the 34 Seats

The total vote cast for U.S. Senate on November 8, 2016, by party, was:

Democratic 51,297,372
Republican 40,784,703
Libertarian 1,788,027
Green 695,604
Working Families 428,854
Conservative 267,186
Independence 150,457
Constitution 124,587
Independent Party of Oregon 59,516
Women’s Equality 45,297
Independent American 27,340
New Independent Party 17,649
Reform 17,781
American 11,923
Unity 9,336
Socialist 6,888
Liberty Union 3,241
American Shopping 1,393

Independent candidates received 461,960 votes. No write-in votes are included in these totals.

Despite the large Democratic margin over the Republican Party, Republicans won 22 seats and Democrats won 12.

The Libertarian total for U.S. Senate was the highest in the party’s history. The previous best years for the U.S. Senate had been 1992, when the total was 1,056,690; and 2000, when it was 1,044,778.

The Green total for U.S. Senate was the second best in the party’s history. The best had been 2000, when it was 697,244.