The District of Columbia Board of Elections has these preliminary totals for the Green Party presidential primary:
Cynthia McKinney 99
write-ins 62
no candidate 23
Jared Ball 12
Kent Mesplay 9
Howie Hawkins 7
Kat Swift 6
Jesse Johnson 5
The D.C. Green Party won a lawsuit in 2004 to force the D.C. Board of Elections to count write-ins in its presidential primary. Therefore, presumably in the next few weeks, the write-ins in this primary will also be counted.
CNN’s election night coverage for Maryland, Virginia and D.C. is here. Maryland polls are open until 9:30 pm so any Maryland returns will be late.
Indiana requires 4,500 signatures for candidates to get on a presidential primary ballot. Six candidates turned in signatures. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama filed in the Democratic primary. Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney turned in signatures for the Republican primary. It is not known why Romney turned in signatures, since he has withdrawn from the competition.
On February 12, Pennsylvania’s Governor issued an order, extending the filing period for candidates seeking a place on Democratic and Republican primary ballots, from 5 p.m. on Tuesday (February 12), to noon on Thursday (February 14). The reason was that wintery weather had slowed down transportation.
Notwithstanding the extension, the only five presidential candidates who had been expected to file a petition, did so. They are Hillary Clinton and Barack in the Democratic primary; and Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Ron Paul in the Republican primary. Each needed 2,000 signatures of party members, plus additional petitions to qualify candidates for Delegate in various U.S. House districts.
Mike Huckabee has been on record ever since August 2007 as being in favor of full voting rights for citizens who live in the District of Columbia. However, in September 2007 John McCain voted against the bill to give D.C. a voting representative in the U.S. House. He has not addressed the subject since then, as far as is known.
