Economics Professor Darren Grant has a new article in Social Science Quarterly, December 2024, titled “Prevailing Party Laws & General Election Outcomes.” It finds that the order of candidates influences voting behavior, and estimates that 2% of the voters are influenced by ballot order. Here is a link to a description of his paper.
He has written about ballot order before, including a 2017 article, “The Ballot Order Effect is Huge: Evidence from Texas.”
The Florida Secretary of State has released write-in totals for the declared write-in presidential candidates. The only candidate who had write-in status, and who was on the ballot in at least one state, was Shiva Ayyadurai. He received 199.
Cornel West probably would have filed for write-in status, but he expected to be on the ballot as the Natural Law nominee. However his papework was faulty, and by the time that was apparent, it was too late to file as a write-in.
The Indiana Secretary of State’s office has state totals for write-in presidential candidates. For those candidates who were on the ballot in at least one state, they are: Peter Sonski of the American Solidarity Party 1,347; Claudia De la Cruz of Socialism & Liberation 832; Cornel West 722.
Jill Stein was not a declared write-in presidential candidate because the deadline for filing as a write-in was July 5, and at that time she expected to be on the ballot. She wasn’t told that her petition had failed until August, and then it was too late to be a write-in.
In 2020, the American Solidarity Party presidential write-in total in Indiana was 895. In 2020 the Socialism & Liberation Party didn’t have write-in status in Indiana.
The New York State Board of Elections continues to tally the number of registered voters in parties that were qualified before the 2020 law that removed them from the ballot. Because these parties are no longer listed on the enrollment form, it is not surprising that they have been declining. Nevertheless, there are still many voters registered in these parties.
As of December 4, 2024, there are 16,424 Greens; 15,017 Libertarians; 372 in the SAM Party; and 300,653 in the Independence Party.
As of February 27, 2024, membership was 18,153 Greens; 17,330 Libertarians; 428 in the SAM Party; and 322,070 in the Independence Party.
The November 1 2024 print issue of Ballot Access News had a chart showing the number of registered voters in each party in each state, but becaues that issue was printed before these new figures were available, the chart had to show the February 2024 figures for New York.
Last month, 2.4% of the vote for president in the District of Columbia went to write-in presidential candidates, yet the D.C. Board of Elections refused to reveal who received those write-ins. D.C. policy is not to count the write-ins for declared write-in presidential candidates unless it appears a write-in candidate might have carried the district.
It is absurd that D.C. has a policy for declared write-in candidates to file, and yet D.C. won’t count the votes. But this policy was upheld in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2012 in Libertarian Party v D.C. Board of Elections. Two very famous judges signed that opinion: Merrick Garland and Brett Kavanaugh. Garland has since been Attorney General of the United States, and Brett Kavanaugh is one of Donald Trump’s appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Presidential candidates who filed for write-in status in 2024 are Chase Oliver, Jill Stein, Claudia De la Cruz, and Shiva Ayyadurai. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was on the ballot, but only polled .85% of the vote.
