On November 29, the US Supreme Court refused to hear the Terry Baum case, Baum v Superior Court, no. 04-416. The issue is whether write-ins should count if the voter didn’t check the box next to the name that the voter had just written in. The case originated in the Green Party congressional primary in March, 2004, in San Francisco.

The court’s refusal to hear the case was discouraging for Donna Frye, who probably received more votes than any other candidate on November 2, 2004, for Mayor of San Diego. Frye was credited with 155,454 write-in votes. Incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy received 157,938 votes, and the other candidate whose name was printed on the ballot, Ron Roberts, got 141,874.

However, there were at least 4,500 write-in votes in the San Diego Mayoral election which were never counted, because the voter didn’t check the box next to the name written in. Probably at least 95% of them were for Donna Frye, so if the votes had been counted, Frye probably would have won.

The League of Women Voters had sued to require that all San Diego write-ins be counted, by a California Superior Court Judge had ruled against the League on November 22. League of Women Voters v McPherson, no. 838890. Donna Frye, as a real party in interest in that lawsuit, is free to appeal if she wishes. She has not formally announced whether she will appeal.

The Georgia Libertarian Party candidate for Dade County Executive is in a run-off election Tuesday, November 23.

Ben Brandon received 33% of the vote in the November 2 election for the partisan office. The Republican candidate received 40% and the Democrat received 27%. This is the first time Dade County voters are electing a County Executive, so there is no incumbent. Previously, the post was a hired position.

Brandon is given a good chance of victory in the run-off. He has extensive activity in the community and local business and has received the endorsement of Republican State Representative Brian Joyce, in spite of the fact that Brandon’s opposition is a Republican. Also, it has been reported that local Democratic leaders are urging vote for Brandon.

Ohio will have a full recount of all Presidential votes, thanks to Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party and David Cobb of the Green Party. The two Presidential candidates raised the required $150,000 fee to order the recount.

Badnarik and Cobb said they aren’t trying to overturn President Bush’s 136,000-vote victory in Ohio, but just want to ensure that all votes were counted properly in the face of concerns about Election Day irregularities.

The actual cost of the recount to county election boards will be about $1.5 million.

In New Hampshire, the Ralph Nader campaign has requested and paid for a hand recount in 11 wards where the results seemed anomalous in their support for President Bush and where the votes were counted on optical scan machines – primarily the Diebold AccuVote Machine.