Connecticut seems to have completed its official tally already. See here. The tally shows that Rocky Anderson polled 19,399 votes in the state, but this seems to be an obvious error, because the official tally shows that Mitt Romney received zero votes in Wallingford, and that President Obama received 9,259 votes in Wallingford, and that Anderson received 11,559 votes in Wallingford. There is a similar mistake for the town of Woodbury.
No one knows yet if Gary Johnson received as many as 50,000 votes for President this month in New York state. The preliminary total for Johnson, gathered by the news media, is 42,452. However, the total on election night in New York state, as in most states, is far below what the final total will be. In 2010, New York city finished its official canvass on December 2, 2010, and the final results were 17% higher than the election night total.
The New York State Board of Elections did not release 2010 election returns until December 13, 2010, and chances are the 2012 results will not be known until mid-December 2012.
New York state defines “party” to be a group that polled 50,000 votes for Governor. When this definition was written, New York state elected its governor every two years. There is a plausible argument to be made that it is unconstitutional for a state to make it literally impossible for a group to become a “political party” at any point during a presidential election year. New York and Indiana are the only states in which a group cannot qualify as a “political party”, except on election day in mid-term years.
In 1980, the Libertarian Party polled 52,648 votes for President, and after the election was over, filed a lawsuit, alleging that it had shown enough voter support to qualify as a political party. However, the attorney who filed the lawsuit erroneously sued the New York Secretary of State, instead of the State Board of Elections, which was a fatal procedural flaw.
3 U.S. Code, section 6, is titled “Credentials of electors; transmission to Archivist of the United States and to Congress; public inspection.” The text of this law seems to require jurisdictions with electoral votes to count the write-in votes for all declared write-in presidential candidates, if that state’s write-in declaration procedure has provision for the write-in presidential candidate to also submit a list of presidential elector candidates.
Jurisdictions in which various minor party presidential candidates did file in 2012 for write-in status, and yet which in the past have refused to tally such write-ins, include Alaska, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. In Alaska this year, Virgil Goode filed for write-in status and included a slate of presidential elector candidates. Rocky Anderson did the same in the District of Columbia. It is believed that Jill Stein did the same thing in Wyoming.
The law says, “It shall be the duty of the executive of each State, as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the appointment of the electors in such State by the final ascertainment, under and in pursuance of the laws of such State providing for such ascertainment, to communicate by registered mail under the seal of such State to the Archivist of the United States a certificate of such ascertainment of the electors appointed, setting forth the names of such electors and the canvass or other ascertainment under the laws of such State of the number of votes given or cast for each person for whose appointment any and all votes have been given or cast.”
The Constitution Party intends to ask the Alaska Division of Elections to follow this law and to tally the number of write-ins cast for Virgil Goode, and the Justice Party had already made the same request to the District of Columbia Board of Elections.
Each state, and the District of Columbia, has its own law to determine the order of candidates on general election ballots. In 2012, there are eight jurisdictions in which a minor party presidential candidate appeared first on the ballot. Also there are nine states in which minor party presidential candidates appeared first on the ballot in some parts of the state.
The states in which a minor party presidential candidate appeared first on all ballots include five in which candidates are listed alphabetically. In Hawaii, Maine, and Massachusetts, Gary Johnson was listed first because his name came first in the alphabet, among all candidates who were on. In Nevada, Virgil Goode benefited from the same law. In Vermont, Rocky Anderson was first.
Colorado puts all major parties on the ballot in alphabetical order of party name, and the status of the Constitution Party, which is a major party because it polled over 10% for Governor in 2010, meant that Virgil Goode was listed first. It happens to be that the name of that party in Colorado is “American Constitution”, but the results would be the same if it were just “Constitution”, because “C” comes before “D” and “R.”
Utah and the District of Columbia use a random selection process to determine the order of names on the ballot, and Jill Stein was chosen to be first in both places. Oregon also uses that method, and President Obama benefited from that and was listed first.
States that rotate the order of candidates on the ballot, giving each ballot-listed candidate the top spot on some ballots, are Alaska, California, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Ohio. Arkansas seems to give each county discretion over candidate order, and in some counties a minor party candidate was on top. South Carolina rotates the order of parties on the ballot from one election to the next, and it just happens that in 2012, it was the Republican Party’s turn to be listed first on the ballot. Louisiana lists parties on the ballot alphabetically by party name, but of course that means the Democratic Party is always first, although the Green Party is second. South Dakota has a random selection but it happens that in 2012, the Democratic Party was first.
If anyone reading this can help me obtain a copy of a Delaware ballot, or a Hawaii ballot, please e-mail me at richardwinger@yahoo.com.
On November 6, it appears that seventeen independent candidates were elected to state legislatures. They include one in Georgia, four in Maine, one in Rhode Island, six in South Carolina, one in Tennessee, and four in Vermont.
The four in Vermont were Will Stevens, Paul Poirier, Adam Greshin, and Charles “Tim” Goodwin.
The one in Georgia was Rusty Kidd.
The winner in Tennessee was Kent Williams.
The winners in South Carolina were Katrina Shealy (State Senate); and Raye Felder, Samuel Rivers, Mike Ryhal, Robert Ridgeway, and Kevin Hardee.
The winner in Rhode Island was Edward J. O’Neill (State Senate).
The winners in Maine are Ben Chipman, James Campbell, Jeffrey Evangelos, and Joseph Brooks. Thanks to Peter Moody for help with the Maine list, and to Thomas Jones for the helpful referral to the web page of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Summing up the November 2012 election, 8 minor party nominees and 17 independents won legislative races, for a total of 25, the largest such number since Ballot Access News has been in existence, and probably the highest such number since the 1940’s.
