The California Senate will vote on Wednesday, September 7, on AB 1413. The bill abolishes write-in space on California general election ballots for Congress and state office. If you support write-in voting, please telephone Senate President Darrell Steinberg’s office at 916-651-4006 and ask him to delete the write-in ban from the bill. If the bill cannot be amended, then ask that it be defeated. Anyone, whether a resident of California or not, should feel free to call. The receptionist will take the message, but she will also ask what city the caller lives in. If you call, don’t be embarrassed to say you live in a state other than California.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that states may abolish write-in space on ballots, no state has abolished write-in space since Louisiana did so in 1975. Only five states ban write-ins at general elections (Hawaii, South Dakota, Louisiana, Nevada and Oklahoma). In recent years, write-in voting has been expanded. Indiana added provision for write-in voting in 1991; Kansas added provision for write-in voting for President and Governor in 1991; Virginia added write-in voting for President in 1997; Nebraska added write-in voting for President in 2005 (Kansas, Virginia and Nebraska already had had write-in voting for all other office at general elections, but had previously banned write-ins for those particular offices).

California voters have frequently used write-in voting to elect people whose names were not on the general election ballot, including members of Congress in 1930, 1946, and 1982. The right to vote includes the right of choice for whom to vote.

Garrett Epps has this story, in The Atlantic, about the lawsuit filed recently by the state of Arizona to overturn Section Five of the national Voting Rights Act. Epps is critical of the state’s lawsuit, which is called State of Arizona v Holder.