On November 4, Tennessee State Senator Micheal Williams, an independent, was defeated for re-election by a margin of 29,175 votes to his Republican opponent’s 29,422 votes. If Williams had won, he would have been the first independent elected to the Tennessee State Senate since 1978. Williams had been elected as a Republican in 2004 but he had switched to being an independent on March 14, 2007.
Former Indiana Congressman John Hostettler will speak to the Constitution Party’s national committee meeting in Orlando, Florida, on December 12-13. Hostettler, a Republican who served 1994-2006, also has revealed that he cast a write-in vote for the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, this year. Hostettler has recently published a book, “Nothing for the Nation: Who Got What Out of Iraq.”
On November 21, the California Secretary of State’s office said the official canvass won’t be available until December 13, which is a Saturday. So statewide write-in totals in California, and the final figures for ballot-listed candidates in that state, can’t be known until then.
The voters of Alpine, Wyoming, are being asked to return to the polls on November 25, to vote again in a State House race. On November 4, the race in the 22nd district between Democrat Jim Roscoe and Republican Charles Stough was very close. The results were: Roscoe 2,891; Stough 2,887.
Then it was discovered that eleven voters had voted in Alpine Precinct, the northernmost corner of Lincoln County, even though they don’t live in Alpine Precinct. They live in the adjoining precinct to the south. That was a problem, because Alpine is in the 22nd district but the precinct to the south is in the 21 district. Since there was no way to retrieve the eleven ballots that should not have been counted, the State Canvassing Board on November 12 ruled that Alpine Precinct must vote all over again. The candidates are actively campaigning there, somewhat as in this year’s Disney movie “Swing Vote.” Here is a newspaper story about the re-vote.
On November 18, Ohio held a special U.S. House election in the 11th district to fill a vacant seat. Marcia Fudge was the only candidate on the ballot. She won the election with only 8,450 votes reported so far. The final total will be perhaps 5% higher. There were several declared write-in candidates, but their votes haven’t been tallied yet.
The term is to last only from now until January 3, 2009. Marcia Fudge was elected to the full two-year term two weeks earlier. A technicality forced Ohio to hold a special election on November 18 just to fill this seat that would otherwise be vacant, since the former member, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, had died this year. Independent candidate James Germalic had tried very hard to get on the November 18 ballot. He needed 750 signatures. Although he submitted more than twice as many, he was told he didn’t have enough valid.
