Rocky Anderson, the Justice Party presidential candidate, filed last month as a declared write-in presidential candidate in the District of Columbia. On October 1, he asked the D.C. Board of Elections to tally his write-ins. His letter explains that Title 3, section 6, of the U.S. code requires jurisdictions with presidential electors to tell the National Archivist the exact number of votes received by each qualified candidate for presidential elector.
In 2008, Libertarian nominee Bob Barr was the only presidential candidate who filed for write-in status in D.C. The D.C. Board did not tally his write-ins. The Libertarian Party sued, but lost. However, the lawsuit did not mention the national law about tallying votes for presidential electors, because when the Libertarian case was filed, the party didn’t know about this law.
As far as is known, Anderson is the only declared write-in presidential candidate to have filed in D.C. as a write-in. However, the deadline is not until near the end of October. It isn’t easy to file for declared write-in status in D.C., because the candidate must certify the names of three presidential elector candidates who have lived in D.C. for the last three years. Candidates on the ballot in D.C. this year, besides the two major party nominees, are Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.
