California Secretary of State Releases Final Vote Totals

On December 13, the California Secretary of State released the final official vote totals. The only declared presidential write-in candidate, Peter Sonski of the American Solidarity Party, received 2,939. In 2020 the party’s presidential nominee had polled 2,605 write-ins in California.

Cornel West and Shiva Ayyadurai, presidential candidates who filed for write-in status in most of the states in which they were not on the ballot, did not file in California because the write-in filing procedure is so difficult. It requires the candidate to recruit 54 candidates for presidential elector, and 54 more candidates for alternate presidential elector. All 108 individuals must fill out a notarized declaration form. This law is discriminatory, because presidential elector candidates for parties that are on the ballot do not need to file any paperwork. Instead their party simply files a list containing their names and addresses with the Secretary of State.

Ninth Circuit Will Hear No Labels Arizona Lawsuit on January 13

The Ninth Circuit will hear No Labels Party v Fontes, 24-563, on Monday, January 13, at 9 a.m. in San Francisco. This is the case over whether a party has a freedom of association right to block anyone from running in its primary for Congress, state office, and county office, if that party doesn’t want candidates for such offices. The U.S. District Court had said that No Labels may do that if it wishes.

Georgia Libertarian Party Ballot Access Lawsuit Progress

The Georgia Libertarian Party has been in federal court ever since 2017, in its lawsuit against the law on how a minor party can run a U.S. House candidate. As this website has repeatedly said, the Georgia law for U.S. House ballot access for independent candidates and the nominees of parties that didn’t poll 20% of the vote for president is the worst ballot access law in the nation. No third party has ever been able to overcome since it was created in 1943.

The party’s Eleventh Circuit brief is due January 17, 2025. The case had almost completely lost, but the equal protection argument had still been alive, and then the legislature earlier this year amended the law to give the case a stronger argument. The new Georgia law lets a minor party on the ballot for president automatically if its presidential nominee is on in 20 other jurisdictions. This new law completely undercuts the state’s argument that it has a compelling interest in keeping all candidates off the ballot who aren’t extremely well-supported. The new presidential law means a candidate may be on the Georgia ballot for president even if he or she has no support whatsoever in Georgia.

The U.S. District Court refused to let the party amend its Complaint to take coognizance of the new law, so the appeals court will be asked to reverse that decision.

“Other” Vote for President Now Stands at 2.13%

According to The Green Papers, as votes continue to be reported from last month’s election, the presidential vote for persons other than Donald Trump and Kamala Harris now stands at 2.13% of the total.

By contrast, in 2020, the final “other” vote was 1.83%.

The margin between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is now 1.47%. Trump received 49.67% and Harris received 48.20%. This is the closest margin between the two major presidential candidates since 2000.

It is not surprising that the “other” vote in 2024 has continued to rise, because many of them are write-in votes, and they are the last to be canvassed.

Jilll Stein Received 46,698 Write-ins in New York

The New York State Board of Elections has released the official vote from last month’s election, including the write-in vote for declared write-in presidential candidates. Jill Stein received 46,698 write-ins. This is the second largest number of votes ever recorded for a general election write-in presidential candidate in any state. The only candidate with a higher total was independent candidate Eugene McCarthy in California in 1976. He received 58,412.

The other declared write-in candidates who were on the ballot in at least one state received these totals: Claudia De la Cruz 6,327; Chase Oliver 5,338; Cornel West 4,152; Peter Sonski 1,544; Shiva Ayyadurai 134.

No one was on the ballot except for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. did not file for write-in status. However, there were 46,404 “void” votes cast, which is probably almost entirely the number of write-in votes for candidates who hadn’t filed for write-in status.

Jill Stein’s percentage of the vote is .57%.