On January 12, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Texas Democratic Party v Andrade, 08-540. The party had complained that the state should not be using e-Slate vote-counting equipment, because of the way that equipment handles voters who use the straight-ticket device.

If a voter using e-Slate machines uses the straight-ticket device, and that same voter also casts a vote in a particular race for the nominee of the same party, the machine then erases the vote cast by that voter in the one race. Apparently many voters use the straight-ticket device. But, just for emphasis, they may also “re-vote” for a particular candidate they especially want to win. That has the effect of cancelling out the voter’s vote in the one race in which he or she was especially eager to vote.

It would seem rational that Texas Democrats, having lost this lawsuit, would support the pending bill in the legislature to eliminate the straight-ticket device.

Pennsylvania attorney Phil Berg, who filed the first lawsuit on whether President-Elect Barack Obama meets the constitutional qualifications for president, had had two requests pending in the U.S. Supreme Court, both called Berg v Obama. On January 12, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Berg’s request that the Court take his case for full review. His request for injunctive relief is on the January 16 conference. Odds are extremely high that it will also be denied, but that won’t be known until January 21. The Court is closed on January 19 and January 20. UPDATE: technically, the U.S. Supreme Court did not deny cert. Instead, the order is: “08-570. The petition for a writ of cert before judgment is denied.” That is slightly different than just “cert denied.”

On January 12, the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Green Party again asked the State Elections Department why it has not tallied any write-in votes for Cynthia McKinney for president. The party had submitted a list of presidential elector candidates pledged to Cynthia McKinney before the election, and asked for a tally of the number of votes received by McKinney. In response, as noted earlier, the Department arbitrarily tallied the write-ins for Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Baldwin, but no one else. As noted previously, all write-ins in Pennsylvania are valid, because the state has no requirement that a write-in candidate file a declaration of candidacy in order to obtain a tally.