The only four presidential candidates who filed for write-in status in Illinois this year are candidates who were not on the ballot in any state. Illinois has very cumbersome procedures for filing as a declared write-in for any statewide office. Unlike any other state, Illinois provides that candidates must file with each county. Consequently, presidential candidates who weren’t on the ballot in Illinois, but who were on the ballot in certain other states, simply skipped Illinois. Therefore, there are no Illinois write-in results for Alan Keyes, or Brian Moore, or Roger Calero, or Charles Jay, or Gloria La Riva (La Riva didn’t file for write-in status in any state).

The four who did file are Frank Moore, Ronald G. Hobbs, Donald K. Allen, and (in one county only), a Ron Paul slate. Frank Moore got two in Cook County and one in Lake County. Allen got one in Peoria County, one in DuPage County, and one in Cook County. Hobbs got 3 in Cook County and one in Marion County. The Ron Paul elector slate got one in Pope County. Probably the people who filed it, only filed in that one small county.

It would be beneficial if Illinois would change its write-in filing law, to provide that a write-in candidate for statewide office only needs to file with the State Board of Elections. It is absurd to force such candidates to file in each county in which they wish their write-ins to be counted. Illinois has 102 counties.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, posted on December 4 his own opinion that the way to solve the D.C. voting rights problem is to return D.C. to Maryland, or else add it to Virginia. He writes, “To me, the more obvious solution is to simply have D.C. annexed by either Maryland or Virginia. Can someone explain why that option is either ignored or a non-starter?” See www.dailykos.com, the posting made at 3 p.m. Pacific time on December 4.

All three of New York’s ballot-qualified minor parties cross-endorsed a major party presidential candidate this year. Here are the percentages of the vote received by each of those parties, for the office at the top of the ticket (President in presidential years, and Governor in mid-term years) for the last six elections:

Conservative Party: 1998 7.36%; 2000 2.12%; 2002 3.86%; 2004 2.10%; 2006 3.80%; 2008 2.24%.

Independence Party: 1998 7.69%; 2000 .36%; 2002 14.28%; 2004 1.14%; 2006 4.30%; 2008 2.15%.

Working Families Party: 1998 1.08%; 2000 1.30%; 2002 1.98%; 2004 1.81%; 2006 3.50%; 2008 2.09%.

During these years, the Conservative Party has always cross-endorsed the Republican nominee for the office at the top of the ballot, and the Working Families Party has always cross-endorsed the Democratic nominee for the top office. Therefore, their percentages are fairly stable. Both of them did slightly better in 2008 than they had done in 2004.

The Independence Party always nominated someone for the topmost office who was not a major party nominee, during the period up until 2006. But in 2006 it cross-endorsed the Democratic nominee, and in 2008 the Republican nominee.