On May 5, the California Assembly passed AB 461 by a vote of 51-21. This bill says, “In the event of a manual recount conducted pursuant to Section 15610 or requested pursuant to Section 15620 or 15621, the process set forth in Section 15342 shall be liberally construed to ensure that each ballot is counted if the intent of the voter can be determined, regardless of whether the voter has complied with the voting instructions.”

If this bill is signed into law, write-ins will count, even though the voter forgot, or didn’t know, to “X” the box next to the name written in. It is ironic that a California bill liberalizing counting write-ins is making headway, at the same time that California has another statute on the books that says write-ins may never be counted in November for Congress or state office. The latter restriction was added in 2009 to implement the top-two system. There is no bill pending to repeal that serious write-in restriction.

On May 14, the Montana Constitution Party held a state convention. It elected new officers and voted to rejoin the national organization of the Constitution Party. In 2008 the Montana Constitution Party had not been affiliated with the national Constitution Party, which is one reason the Montana Constitution Party in 2008 placed Ron Paul on the November ballot as its presidential nominee, instead of Chuck Baldwin. Thanks to Frank Fluckiger for this news.

On May 2, Alan Keyes asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his lawsuit against California Secretary Debra Bowen. The case is Keyes v Bowen, 10-1351. Here is the cert petition. Keyes, who ran for President in 2008, believes that President Obama does not meet the constitutional qualifications. He also believes that California law requires election officials to keep candidates off the ballot if they do not meet the constitutional qualifications.

The State Court of Appeals had ruled in this case last year that the California Secretary of State “has no discretion for the general election ballot…She must (“must” is in italics in the decision) place on the ballot the names of the several political parties’ candidates.” This is a significant ruling, given that in both 1968 and 1984, California Secretaries of State had removed presidential candidates from ballots because those presidential candidates did not meet the constitutional qualifications to hold the office. On February 2, 2011, the California Supreme Court had refused to hear the Keyes case, and it is likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will also refuse to hear it. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.