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.

The national media is already starting to pay attention to the upcoming Georgia U.S. Senate run-off. No one got as much as 50% of the vote for U.S. Senate this month. Georgia is the only state that provides for a run-off for U.S. Senate, when no one gets 50%. That runoff will be on December 2. See this article, which focuses on whether or not President-elect Barack Obama will get involved.

This is the third time a Libertarian for U.S. Senate in Georgia has caused no one to receive 50%. In 1992, the vote in November had been Wyche Fowler (Dem.) 1,108,416; Paul Coverdell (Rep.) 1,073,282; Jim Hudson (Libt.) 69,878. Hudson then endorsed Coverdell for the run-off. The run-off, held on November 24, was: Coverdell 635,114; Fowler 618,877.

In 1996, the vote in November was Max Cleland (Dem.) 1,103,993; Guy Millner (Rep.) 1,073,969; John Cashin (Libt.) 81,262. However, since the law had been changed between 1993 and 1995 to require a run-off only when no one get 45%, there was no run-off. After the 1996 election, though, the law was changed again to require a run-off when no one gets 50%.

It doesn’t follow logically that the Georgia Libertarian Party, or Allen Buckley (this year’s Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate), should endorse either major party nominee in the run-off.