Oklahoma State Senator Eddie Fields (R-Wynona) has introduced SB 76, which vastly increases candidate filing fees. The fee for U.S. House would rise from $500 to $1,500. The fee for U.S. Senate would rise from $750 to $2,000. For statewide executive offices other than Governor, the fee would increase from $200 to $1,000. For Governor the fee would go from $1,500 to $3,000.

Oklahoma does not have a glut of candidates in its primaries. In 2012, there were no statewide offices up in the primary, but for U.S. House, only one person filed in each party’s primary, in each of the five districts. Thanks to Richard Prawdzienski for this news.

On Friday, January 11, a team of three volunteers organized by the Green Party has an appointment with the Vermont Elections Division, to go through the returns from each town and tally up the presidential write-ins. The results will be placed on state stationery so they will be considered “official” and will be included in national vote tallies of the presidential vote.

Pennsylvania still hasn’t tallied its write-ins, but says it will do so, although Pennsylvania state totals are always flawed because some counties refuse to count any write-ins.

On December 27, 2012, Richard Walton died at the age of 84 in his home state of Rhode Island. He was the Citizens Party vice-presidential nominee in 1984. The party’s presidential nominee that year was Sonia Johnson. See this wikipedia page about him. He was also a founder of the Green Party, and helped lead the party ever since the 1990’s. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for the link.