Washington, D.C., holds a special election for city council-at-large on April 23. In special elections in Washington, for this office, parties don’t have nominees. Individuals who wish to appear on the ballot must collect 3,000 signatures during the period December 6 through January 23. This news story says that because it is winter, even well-known candidates are struggling with the petition requirement. Any registered voter can sign for any candidate, regardless of party affiliation.

Sixteen individuals have taken out blank petition forms. They include 13 Democrats, one Republican, one Green, and one independent. Each needs 3,000 signatures. If this were a regular election for this office, there would be a partisan primary, and to get on the ballot in that partisan primary, Democrats would need 2,000 signatures of party members; Republicans would need 296 signatures of party members; and Greens would need 41 signatures of party members.

The vacancy exists because former City council-at-large member Phil Mendelson resigned to become Chair of the City Council, which had become vacant because of another resignation.

Oklahoma State Senator Eddie Fields (R-Wynona) has introduced SB 76, which vastly increases candidate filing fees. The fee for U.S. House would rise from $500 to $1,500. The fee for U.S. Senate would rise from $750 to $2,000. For statewide executive offices other than Governor, the fee would increase from $200 to $1,000. For Governor the fee would go from $1,500 to $3,000.

Oklahoma does not have a glut of candidates in its primaries. In 2012, there were no statewide offices up in the primary, but for U.S. House, only one person filed in each party’s primary, in each of the five districts. Thanks to Richard Prawdzienski for this news.

On Friday, January 11, a team of three volunteers organized by the Green Party has an appointment with the Vermont Elections Division, to go through the returns from each town and tally up the presidential write-ins. The results will be placed on state stationery so they will be considered “official” and will be included in national vote tallies of the presidential vote.

Pennsylvania still hasn’t tallied its write-ins, but says it will do so, although Pennsylvania state totals are always flawed because some counties refuse to count any write-ins.