The Alabama House Constitution and Elections Committee hears HB 145 on January 14. It provides that any write-in candidate who wants his or her write-ins tallied must file a declaration of write-in candidacy. A similar bill introduced in both houses of the legislature in 2009 failed to pass. Alabama is one of the few states that permits write-ins in general elections and yet does not require write-in candidates to file a write-in declaration of candidacy. As a result, the state won’t tally the votes for any write-in candidates, even though most counties do so.
In 2008, the Alabama Secretary of State put the write-ins reported by the counties on her web page, along with the election returns for the ballot-listed candidates. But she didn’t tally the write-ins herself, so write-ins for candidates like Cynthia McKinney (who had bona fide campaigns for president but who weren’t on the Alabama ballot) were not included in the sources that compile the national vote totals for presidential candidates, such as the Federal Election Commission’s book titled Federal Elections 2008, and Congressional Quarterly’s America Votes 28. These sources do not consider vote totals “official” unless the state (and not just a collection of counties) report them. Presumably, if the bill is enacted, the Secretary of State will provide such a tally in the future for write-in candidates who file a declaration. Thanks to Ed Still for the news about the bill.