Former California legislator Gary K. Hart has this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, recommending that the California Constitution be changed so that legislative vacancies would be filled by some method other than special election. He reports that only 25 states fill state legislative vacancies with special elections. He mentioned some of the methods used by the other states, but he did not mention that in some states, the political party of the legislator who resigned or died can fill the vacancy, with input from certain public officials. For example, a party may suggest three names and the Governor might choose one from that list. This system requires special procedures when the legislator who resigns or dies was an independent.

At the November 2012 election, four populous counties in Pennsylvania did not canvass any write-in votes, even though state law requires that all valid votes must be tallied. The four counties are Chester, Dauphin, Lackawanna, and Lancaster. Each of them has more than 200,000 residents, and Chester and Lancaster each have approximately 500,000 residents.

Pennsylvania Election Code section 3154(a) says, “The county board shall, at 9:00 A.M. on the third day following the primary or election, at its office or at some other convenient public place at the county seat, publicly commence the computation and canvassing of the returns, and continue the same from day to day until completed, in the manner hereinafter provided. Upon the completion of such computation and canvassing, the board shall tabulate the figures for the entire county and sign, announce and attest the same, as required by this section.”

Unlike the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania has no law or regulation saying write-ins should not be counted unless the vote-counting equipment suggests that a write-in candidate may have won a primary or an election. Write-ins have always been permitted in Pennsylvania, ever since the first government-printed ballots. In 1905, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in Oughton v Black, 61 A. 346, that if a ballot didn’t contain write-in space, that ballot would violate the state Constitution. The Court said, “Unless there was such provision to enable the voter not satisfied to vote any ticket on the ballot, or for any names appearing on it, to make up an entire ticket of his own choice, the election as to him would not be equal, for he would not be able to express his own individual will in his own way.”

Less-populated counties that also didn’t tally any write-ins in November 2012 were Crawford, Elk, Perry, and Snyder Counties. The failure of Lancaster County to canvass the write-ins was especially injurious to the Constitution Party’s write-in total, because Lancaster County is the party’s center of organizational strength. The party’s vice-presidential nominee, Jim Clymer, lives in Lancaster County, so his own vote was not counted.

Madison, Wisconsin, elected members of the city council and school board on April 2. Two Greens who had not previously been incumbents were elected. Ledell Zellers was elected to the city council, ward 2. Dean Loumos was elected to the School Board. This post has been re-written. Thanks to Mike for the news. UPDATE: also, a former Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Rae Vogeler, was elected in a non-partisan election to the Oregon School Board. Oregon is a suburb of Madison.