The National Archives & Records Administration web page is posting copies of the 2012 Certificates of Ascertainment received from each state. This is a document that tells the total number of valid votes received by each candidate for presidential elector. The web page is also posting copies of each state’s electoral college vote, as the states submit them. See here.

The District of Columbia’s Certificate of Ascertainment appears faulty. It asserts that the only qualified presidential elector candidates were those pledged to President Obama, Mitt Romney, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein. Actually, there were also three legally-qualified presidential elector candidates in D.C. pledged to Rocky Anderson, but the Certificate does not list them. Anderson was a declared write-in candidate in D.C.

New York state law does not permit voters to vote before election day, unless they will be absent. However, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has just introduced a bill for early voting. The bill would provide such early voting during the two weeks before an election, or one week before a primary or special election. The New York State legislative web page does not yet list any 2013 bills, so the bill number is unknown. See this story. 33 states already have either “no excuse-absentee voting” or “early voting.”

In less than a week, proponents of the Initiative process in Washington state will submit signatures for their initiative that makes it easier for initiatives to get on the ballot. The measure expands the collection period from six months to one year, and also makes it illegal for opponents of an initiative to “push, shove, touch, spit, throw objects, yell, scream, be verbally abusive, block, maintain an intimidating presence, or take other tumultuous conduct” designed to interfere with speech between petitioners and passersby. Also, the measure says that when an initiative is found to have enough valid signatures, it must be placed on the ballot; lawsuits alleging that the measure violates the State or U.S. Constitution must be filed after the election is over, not before. The initiative needs 241,153 valid signatures and proponents have not said yet how many signatures they have collected. The measure also applies to referenda. Thanks to Paul Jacob for this news.