Pennsylvania Reports 11,630 Presidential Write-ins from November 2012, Doesn’t Give Any Breakdown

Pennsylvania is the most populous state that does not have a law that says write-in candidates must file a write-in declaration of candidacy, if they want their write-ins tallied. Instead, all Pennsylvania write-ins are valid, and the law requires that they be tallied. But, even though most counties tally them, the state this year will not make any statewide tallies. By contrast, in November 2008, the state tallied the write-ins for Ron Paul (3,849) and Chuck Baldwin (1,092).

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Elections says anyone is free to come to their office in Harrisburg and look at the county returns and compile statewide returns. The state also says that there are a total of 11,630 presidential write-ins from November 2012. The only presidential candidate who were not on the ballot in Pennsylvania, but who received at least 50,000 votes nationwide, are Virgil Goode and Roseanne Barr, so chances are each of them received a few hundred. But no one will ever know that, unless someone goes to the Harrisburg office and looks.

Ohio Supreme Court Asks Ohio House of Representatives to Decide Contested Election from November 2012

On February 22, the Ohio Supreme Court forwarded all the evidence collected in O’Farrell v Landis, 2012-2151, to the Clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives. O’Farrell v Landis is an election contest over which candidate won the 98th district House race last November. The Ohio House will now proceed to decide which candidate should be seated. The official election returns show that Republican Al Landis won by eight votes over Democrat Josh O’Farrell, but O’Farrell has presented evidence which he believes shows that the returns are faulty. Under the Ohio Constitution, each house of the legislature is the judge of contested elections for itself. The Ohio House has not been asked to adjudicate an election contest in over 100 years, although the Ohio Senate has done that in more recent years.