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.

The Connecticut Secretary of State has released the official tally, including the vote for declared write-in presidential candidates. Among presidential candidates who were on the ballot in at least one state, these are the totals: Claudia De la Cruz 264; Peter Sonski 162; Cornel West 128; Shiva Ayyadurai 21.

In 2020, the American Solidarity Party received 219 write-ins in Connecticut for president. In 2020 the Party for Socialism and Liberation didn’t file for write-in status in Connecticut. Thanks to Tony Roza for the link.

The Idaho Secretary of State has released the tally for the declared write-in presidential candidates. Peter Sonski of the American Solidarity Party received 238. He was the only declared write-in presidential candidate who was on the ballot in at least one state. In 2020, the party had received 163 write-ins for its presidential candidate in Idaho. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.