For some weeks, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling has allowed speculation about his possible run for Governor this year to percolate. If he runs, he will run as an independent. The Republican Party is expected to nominate Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for Governor at the statewide nominating convention in May, 2013. Bolling was also elected as a Republican, in the last election in 2009. Virginia does not have registration by party. See this story. The headline of the story is misleading; it implies he might not be allowed to run, but what it means is that people doubt he could win. However, Virginia elected Harry F. Byrd, Jr., as an independent U.S. Senator in both 1970 and 1976.

The article quotes Virgil Goode on the difficulties of completing a statewide petition in Virginia if one doesn’t have a great deal of money.

Virginia is one of two states that elects its Governor in 2013; the other is New Jersey. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.

Maine 2012 official election returns separate out the absentee votes received from outside the United States. The results show that overseas voters (which, of course, includes many military personnel) are more likely to vote for a minor party presidential candidate than the average Maine voter.

Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, and even the slate of presidential electors pledged to Ron Paul, all received a higher percentage of the overseas vote than they did in any Maine county (Rocky Anderson, like Ron Paul, was not on the ballot so this refers to his write-ins). President Obama also did far better among the overseas voters than he did in any Maine county, running ten percentage points higher among overseas voters than among Maine voters as a whole.

Maine is one of the few states in which a slate of presidential elector candidates, pledged to a write-in presidential candidate, can file for write-in status without the consent of the presidential candidate himself or herself. A group of presidential elector candidated pledged to Ron Paul filed, and Maine has now released the write-in totals. The write-in vote for Ron Paul last month was 2,035 votes, which is .29% of the total presidential vote.

Other write-in presidential candidates in Maine were Rocky Anderson, who received 62; and Jill Reed, who received 30. The four presidential candidates who were on the ballot were President Obama, Mitt Romney, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein. Johnson received 9,352; Stein received 8,119.

California will also release a write-in total for Ron Paul, but has not done so yet. Chances are his California write-in total will be at least 25,000. Other declared write-in presidential elector slates in California are Stewart Alexander, Rocky Anderson, Steve Durham, Virgil Goode, James Harris, Sheila Tittle, and Jerry White.

New Hampshire doesn’t have a write-in declaration of candidacy procedure. However, the Secretary of State decided to tally the Ron Paul votes, and in that state, Paul was credited with 1,374 write-ins, which is .19% of the total vote cast for President.