Illinois finished its official vote tally on December 3. The number of write-ins for declared write-in presidential candidates had not previously been available. For the candidates who were on the ballot in at least one state, these are the Illinois write-in totals: Virgil Goode 415, Rocky Anderson 185, Jill Reed 131, Tom Hoefling 25, Jerry White 12.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has this op-ed by Rob Richie, on the electoral college. Richie criticizes a proposed bill in the Pennsylvania legislature to apportion Pennsylvania’s electoral votes according to the percentage of the popular vote within Pennsylvania. Richie also makes the case in favor of a National Popular Vote.
Nathan Yu, a student at William & Mary Law School, has this article about California’s top-two system. The article is posted in “State of Elections”, the blog of the William & Mary Election Law Society. The Society has existed since 2006. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Gerald F. Seib has this Wall Street Journal article, noting that only 24 U.S. House districts last month voted for one major party for President and for the other major party for U.S. House member. However, the article notes that the election returns aren’t final and there are seven races in which the calculations might yet change.
Of the 24 districts, 15 voted for President Obama and yet elected a Republican member of the House; 9 voted for Mitt Romney and elected a Democrat to the House. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
Those who advocate that each U.S. House district should elect its own presidential elector should note that if their plan were in effect, Romney would be elected, even though he lost the national popular vote by four percentage points.
The December 11 Daily Oklahoman has this editorial, calling on the legislature to ease Oklahoma ballot access. The editorial is welcome, because several months ago, this newspaper (the largest in the state) had editorialized against letting the state Americans Elect Party choose its own presidential nominee.
The editorial is mistaken to say Gary Johnson was on the ballot in 47 states. He was on in 48, plus D.C.
The timing of the editorial is very good. The deadline for introducing bills in Oklahoma is Friday, December 14. Although certain State House members are willing to introduce a bill, they won’t do so unless one Republican State Senator can be found to co-sponsor it. Oklahoma legislators can only introduce eight bills and no legislator wants to introduce a bill unless the sponsor perceives it has a fair chance of passing. In the last session the House passed ballot access reform but the Senate blocked it. However, the Libertarian Party lawsuit against the state’s ballot access law is still pending in U.S. District Court.
