This year, five registered Greens ran for the Florida legislature. They were all individuals who were completely unknown to the Green Party leadership. But because the Florida law was changed in 2007 to provide that all parties (not just the parties with registration of 5%, meaning the Democrats and Republicans) nominate by primary, it was easy for anyone to register into any party and file for that party’s primary, regardless of the wishes of a minor party’s leadership.

News stories said that all five Greens had only been registered in the Green Party for a few weeks before they filed. Some had previously been registered Republican, some independent, and some had not even been previously registered. Reporters suspected that Republicans had recruited them to run so as to increase the chances that Republicans would win the legislative seats in question. That may or may not be true. In any event, none of the 5 Greens seem to have changed the identity of the winners in those 5 races. In three of the races (State Senate districts 25 and 27, and State House district 44) the Republican nominee won over 50% of the total vote. In the other two (State House districts 69 and 81), although no one received as much as 50% of the total vote, Democrats won both seats.

Two members of the Suffolk County, New York, county legislature are now enrolled members of the Independence Party. They are Jack Eddington, who just switched to the Independence Party from the Working Families Party, and Jay Schneiderman, who switched from the Republican Party in July 2008. See this article. Eddington is married to Patricia Eddington, who is a member of the New York state legislature. She is still enrolled as a Working Families Party member, one of the two minor party registrants in the New York legislature.

Jack Eddington probably would have remained in the Working Families Party, except that the Suffolk County Working Families Party has been feuding with the statewide Working Families Party for some time, over the issue of who should control the party’s nominations, the county organization or the state organization. The state’s highest court ruled earlier this year in favor of the state organization.

New York counties elect their county legislatures in odd years.

On November 10, the California Secretary of State’s office confirmed that it will follow past practice, and tally votes for the declared write-in candidates for president even if the voter didn’t write-in anyone for vice-president. Thanks to the Frank Moore for president campaign staff for this news.

In the District of Columbia, an attorney for the Center for Competitive Democracy has requested the Board of Elections to tally the votes for the declared write-in presidential candidates. In the past, the D.C. Board has not tallied the votes for declared write-in candidates, saying that it is sufficient to simply announce how many votes all of them collectively received. In 1975, a D.C. Superior Court ordered the Board of Elections to “count” the votes for declared write-in presidential candidates, but the Board has never followed this court order. Also, in 1999, a U.S. District Court in D.C. ordered the Board to count the votes on a medical marijuana initiative. The Board then did so, and learned that the initiative had passed (Congress had passed a law telling the Board not to count the votes on that initiative, but that law was declared unconstitutional). One can imagine the reaction if the Board had “counted” the votes on the medical marijuana initiative by simply announcing the number of votes cast, without specifying how many “yes” votes and how many “no” votes there were.