On November 23, the Virginia State Board of Elections re-certified the November 2008 election results, to take account of another 105 votes that were counted this month. These ballots had not been counted last year because they arrived in the postal mail to late to be counted. They were foreign absentee votes. Recently a U.S. District Court ruled that these ballots should be counted, on the grounds that it wasn’t the voter’s fault that they arrived late, because elections officials had mailed them out to the voter too late.

The new votes were cast as follows: Barack Obama 49 votes, John McCain 53 votes, Bob Barr 1 vote, miscellaneous write-ins 2 votes, none for the other ballot-listed candidates, who were Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, and Cynthia McKinney. The new presidential vote totals aren’t up on the Virginia State Board of Elections webpage yet, but they should be soon.

The Rhode Island State Board of Elections wants to levy a fine of $10,000 against Ken Block, because Block donated $20,000 to the Moderate Party of Rhode Island. Block is the person most responsible for conceiving of the Moderate Party and bringing it into existence as a ballot-qualified party earlier this year. See this story.

The whole purpose of limits on how much individuals may contribute to political parties is to prevent big donors from indirectly bribing influential politicians. Such limits make no sense when applied to political parties that have never elected any officials. The U.S. Supreme Court made this point in McConnell v FEC, and almost invited a minor party someday to bring an as-applied challenge. McConnell v FEC is the 2003 decision that upheld most of the McCain-Feingold law, which made it illegal for individuals to donate large amounts of money to national committees of political parties. It is not known if Block will defend himself using the constitutional argument. He does not concede that his donation broke any Rhode Island campaign law. He donated $10,000 to the state Moderate Party, and another $10,000 to one of the town committees of that party. The law is ambiguous about whether that is permitted.

On November 23, a Superior Court Judge in California re-affirmed his tentative decision of November 19, and ruled that the ballot measure for public funding should remain on the June 2010 ballot. The case is Institute of Governmental Advocates v Bowen, 34-2009-80000305.