On December 16, the California Secretary of State completed the election returns for last month’s election. Although that office had made semi-official returns in the preceding weeks, the semi-official returns had no write-in totals for President. Therefore, the biggest news from the December 16 document are the presidential write-ins. Bernie Sanders received 79,341; Evan McMullin received 39,596. See the presidential returns at this link.
Thanks to several people for the link.
Michael Baca is a Colorado Democratic presidential elector who expects to vote for someone other than Hillary Clinton. He was interviewed by Brad Friedman, on BradCast, for Pacifica radio. Here is a link to the full interview. At the 27-minute mark, he explains that the Colorado presidential elector ballots on December 19 are pre-printed with the names of Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice-President. In response to the interviewer’s question as to how he can therefore vote for others, he first mentions “white-out”, but then says he presumes he can cross out the printed names and write in his eventual choices. He has said he will vote for Republicans for those offices. Later in the interview he mentioned John Kasich or Evan McMullin.
Michael Baca is not one of the plaintiffs in the Colorado lawsuit over presidential electors. It appears to be a coincidence that one of the plaintiffs, another Colorado elector, has the same surname. She is Polly Baca.
On December 15, the Colorado Democratic presidential electors who believe they have a right to vote for any presidential candidate who meets the constitutional qualifications, when they vote in the electoral college, asked the State Supreme Court to hear their appeal. The lower state court had ruled that the Secretary of State may administer an oath to the electors before they vote, even though the state election law does not explicitly authorize the Secretary of State to take such an action. See this story. Thanks to Daniel Ong for the link.
On December 16, a recount determined that New York State Senate Democratic nominee John Brooks defeated the Republican incumbent, Senator Michael Venditto. See this story, concerning the result in District Eight in Nassau County.
Brooks and Venditto had been the only two candidates on the ballot. Brooks also had the nomination of the Working Families and Women’s Equality Parties. Venditto also had the nomination of the Conservative, Independence, and Reform Parties; also he did his own separate independent petition under the label “Tax Revolt.”
New York’s Senate has 63 members, and as a result of the recount, there are now 32 Democrats, a majority. However, one Democrat is expected to vote with the Republicans to organize the Senate. If Democrats win control of the State Senate, they are very likely to move the primary for state office from August to June. Unfortunately, Democratic bills to make that change irrationally move the independent candidate petition deadline from August to June as well.
Two lawsuits regarding general election presidential debates are pending. Level the Playing Field v FEC will be heard in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on January 5 at 10 a.m.. That was the first debates lawsuit to be filed, and it is based on campaign finance law. It has not yet had any type of decision.
The second debates lawsuit, Johnson v Commission on Presidential Debates, is now in the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. It is based on anti-trust law and has already lost in U.S. District Court. The opening brief for Gary Johnson and Jill Stein in the D.C. Circuit is due January 31, 2017; the Commission’s brief is due March 2, 2017.
