The Pennsylvania Elections Department posted the official canvass of votes to its own website on Friday, December 5. The Department says it will post the write-ins as well, sometime within the next 30 days.
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Missouri State Senator Joan Bray has again introduced her bill to fix the drafting error in the 1993 ballot access reform law. The intent of the 1993 bill, which passed, was to make it possible for a party to circulate a petition to qualify itself, without the need to list any candidates on that petition. This is called a “party petition”, and most states have something similar.
Unfortunately, due to a drafting error in 1993, the new law still said that the party petition had to list a presidential candidate, and candidates for presidential elector, if the party intended to run for that office. Fortunately the Missouri Secretary of State has permitted stand-in presidential candidates. Nevertheless, the original intent of the law was to eliminate candidates’ names from the party petition entirely. The new bill is SB 70. This the fifth time a Missouri legislator has introduced a bill to fix the old 1993 error. Thanks to Ken Bush for making this happen, and for the information.
New Mexico and North Carolina are among the 12 states in which the state income tax form gives taxpayers an opportunity to direct a small amount of money to the political party of the taxpayer’s choice. The North Carolina state income tax form that will be mailed soon includes the Libertarian Party. And the New Mexico state income tax form that will be mailed soon includes the Constitution, Green, Independent and Libertarian Parties.
There is some ambiguity in both states about which parties should be listed, so in each instance, this is good news. North Carolina law says that only parties that are both ballot-qualified and which have registration of 1% of the state total should be listed on the tax forms. However, the North Carolina Libertarian Party is challenging all election laws that discriminate against smaller parties. The registration threshold for listing on the tax form may be unconstitutional, especially since state policy eliminates all a party’s registered members when it fails to poll enough votes. The Libertarians lost their 13,000 registered voters in 2005 because the party didn’t poll enough votes to remain on the ballot in November 2004. This year voters can again register Libertarian, but the party had to start all over again from zero.
In New Mexico, the law on which parties are qualified has been unclear for decades. It is not clear whether the Secretary of State thinks that all of the parties that are being listed on the new tax forms are still ballot-qualified, but it is a good sign that the Secretary of State told the state Taxation and Revenue Department to include all of the minor parties that appeared on this year’s ballot.
On Sunday, December 7, the Ohio provisional ballots in the 15th U.S. House race were finally all counted. Democratic nominee Mary Jo Kilroy won with 45.91%. Republican nominee Steve Stivers received 45.15%. Libertarian Mark Noble received 4.62%. Independent Don Elijah Eckhart received 4.25%. Declared write-in candidate Travis Casper received .07%.
This outcome is somewhat surprising, because Republicans had prevailed in the Ohio Supreme Court on whether provisional ballots must include both the voter’s signature and the voter’s printed name on the outer envelope. Generally, the convention wisdom was that the excluded ballots would be more likely to help Democrats than Republicans.
It is also somewhat surprising that the Libertarian and the independent candidate each received so many votes, because polls before the election had made it clear that this was a very close race, just as it had been in 2006, when the Republican had defeated the Democrat by only 1,055 votes.
On Sunday, December 7, the Ohio provisional ballots in the 15th U.S. House race were finally all counted. Democratic nominee Mary Jo Kilroy won with 45.91%. Republican nominee Steve Stivers received 45.15%. Libertarian Mark Noble received 4.62%. Independent Don Elijah Eckhart received 4.25%. Declared write-in candidate Travis Casper received .07%.
This outcome is somewhat surprising, because Republicans had prevailed in the Ohio Supreme Court on whether provisional ballots must include both the voter’s signature and the voter’s printed name on the outer envelope. Generally, the convention wisdom was that the excluded ballots would be more likely to help Democrats than Republicans.
It is also somewhat surprising that the Libertarian and the independent candidate each received so many votes, because polls before the election had made it clear that this was a very close race, just as it had been in 2006, when the Republican had defeated the Democrat by only 1,055 votes.