U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell has tentatively set a hearing date of 10:30 a.m. on March 4 for oral arguments in Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections, 09-cv-1676. This is the case in which the party and Bob Barr argue that the U.S. Constitution requires that all valid votes must be counted, including write-in votes for presidential candidates who file a declaration of write-in candidacy. In 1975 the D.C. Appeals Court had ruled in Kamins v Board of Elections that the board must print write-in space on general election ballots for president, and must count those votes. The D.C. Board of Elections has interpreted that to mean that all it must do is count the total number of write-ins cast for President, without specifying how many write-in votes any particular candidate received, even if he or she had filed a declaration of write-in candidacy.
The case was filed in 2009 in the D.C. Court system, and the Board of Elections had it transferred to federal court. The first U.S. District Court Judge who had the case asked the U.S. Justice Department if it wished to express an opinion, but the Justice Department declined. Recently the case was transferred to Judge Howell, who is new to the federal bench.