Under the “Help America Vote Act” (HAVA) passed by Congress, all states received substantial federal funding to buy new vote-counting technology. In exchange, all states were to have such new machines in use by 2006. New York state had failed to meet that deadline, but had promised the federal government that it would have them by the September 2007 primary.

On December 19, the state acknowledged it can’t meet that deadline either, but it says it can probably have them in time for the March 2008 presidential primary.

One reason New York is having such a difficult time is that it insists on retaining a practice under which the full face of the ballot is always visible while the voter is voting.

A bill to move the New Jersey presidential primary to the first Tuesday in February passed the State Senate on December 4. The Assembly will take up the bill when the legislature re-convenes in January 2007. The bills are S2193 and A3832. The Senate passed S2193 by a vote of 33-5.

The only four states that still haven’t released their official November 2006 election returns are Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Pennsylvania returns will be especially interesting, since the state elections department has indicated it will include write-ins (something that Pennsylvania has not done, for the most part, during the last 20 years).

The Libertarian candidate for Governor of Georgia, Garrett Michael Hayes, polled 3.84% last month. That was the best showing for any minor party candidate for Governor of Georgia since 1902, when the Peoples Party polled 6.39% in a 2-person race.

Hayes’ best county was Clarke, home of the city of Athens and the main campus of the University of Georgia. Clarke County is always one of the better Georgia counties for Libertarians anyway, but this is the first time Clarke had been the most Libertarian county. Georgia has 159 counties, more than any other state except Texas.

Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, a Republican, will ask the Kentucky legislature to repeal the law that places a straight-ticket device on Kentucky ballots. He tried last year also, but the bill didn’t advance out of committee.

Most observers believe the straight-ticket device helps Republicans and hurts Democrats and minor parties. The Kentucky Senate has a Republican majority, but the House has a Democratic majority. Thanks to Ed Still for this news.

On late Saturday afternoon, November 16, the legal deadline for getting the job done, California released the official November 7, 2006 election returns.

The only real news from the official returns are the write-in totals, since semi-official totals for candidates listed on the ballot had been continuously tallied, and weren’t very different from the final figures.

Socialist Action Party, which has existed since 1984, had never run a candidate for partisan office anywhere in the U.S., until 2006, when Jeff Mackler was a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate from California. He polled 108 write-ins, with the bulk from San Francisco County (38) and Alameda County (34).

The Socialist Workers Party had also filed to have write-ins for its California candidates tallied. James Harris polled 46 for Governor, and Lea Sherman polled 47 for U.S. Senate. Harris had also been the SWP’s presidential candidate in 1996, 2000, and was the stand-in presidential candidate in 2004. The SWP needed a stand-in presidential candidate in 2004 because its actual presidential candidate, Roger Calero, was not a U.S. citizen and was therefore barred from the ballot in many states.

The Socialist Workers Party had nominated 4 write-in candidates for US House, and two of them filed to have their write-ins tallied. Naomi Craine received one write-in in the 34th district, and David Arguello received four write-ins in the 51st district.

The Socialist Equality Party also had a declared write-in candidate in California. John Burton, running for US House, 29th district, received 15 write-ins.

Final, official Illinois returns show that Richard Whitney, Green Party candidate for Governor, polled the highest share of the vote that any Green Party gubernatorial candidate has ever received. Whitney received 10.36%. The previous Green best gubernatorial showing had been in New Mexico in 1994, when Roberto Mondragon polled 10.26%.

However, Mondragon had been a former Democratic Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico, whereas Richard Whitney started his race with no name recognition.

The best Libertarian Party gubernatorial showing ever was in 1982, when Dick Randolph polled 14.93% in Alaska. The best Constitution Party gubernatorial showing ever was in 1994, when Peg Luksik polled 12.84% in Pennsylvania. The best Reform Party gubernatorial showing was in 1998 when Jesse Ventura was elected in Minnesota with 37.00%.

North Carolina has had very few independent candidates on its ballots. In the entire history of government-printed ballots in North Carolina, there has never been an independent candidate for U.S. House. The only statewide independent who ever appeared on a government-printed ballot was Ross Perot in 1992. Until this year, no independent had run for the legislature since 2000.

But in the November 7, 2006 election, two independents ran against each other, and against a Republican nominee, in the 52nd State House district, which includes part of Moore County (a county midway between Charlotte and Raleigh). The Republican nominee, Joe Boylan, was elected with 43.4% of the vote. One of the independents running against him (Gerald Galloway) polled 35.8%; the other (Bud Shaver) polled 20.8%.

Boylan faced these independent opponents because the Moore County Republican Party is split into two factions. The faction opposed to Boylan ran Shaver against him as an independent (Shaver is married to an officer of the Moore County Republican Party). The other independent candidate, Galloway, had recently been a registered Democrat, although he is now a registered independent. Moore County’s Democratic Party is weak and the Democrats didn’t nominate anyone.

Also, in Durham County, the incumbent Democratic District Attorney, Mike Nifong, faced both an independent opponent and a write-in opponent. Nifong was renominated in the Democratic primary without opposition in May 2006. After the primary, he generated controversy by his prosecution of several members of the Duke Univeristy LaCrosse team, on a charge of rape. The prosecution has been controversial since there is no evidence against the team members other than the word of the woman who accused them. Lewis Cheek qualified as an independent candidate, and Steve Monks carried on a write-in candidacy. Although Nifong was re-elected, he won without a majority. The results were Nifong 49.5%, independent Cheek 39.5%, write-in nominee Monks 11.0%.

On September 21, 2006, a U.S. District Court ruled against an adult U.S. citizen who lives in the Virgin Islands. The plaintiff, Krim Ballentine, had sued the U.S. government, alleging that both the Constitution and international treaties require that he be allowed to vote for president and for a voting member of Congress. The case is Ballentine v USA, civ1999-130. The case had been pending since 1999. Thanks to Michael Richardson for this news. Ballentine has appealed to the 3rd circuit (the 3rd circuit, headquartered in Philadelphia, has jurisdiction over the U.S. Virgin Islands).

Many recent polls have matched up Hillary Clinton against John McCain in a hypothetical major party contest for the 2008 presidential election. These polls always show McCain with a comfortable lead over Clinton.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC Polling Organization released a new poll on December 15, listing the choices as McCain, Clinton and New York city mayor Michael Bloomberg. Results are: Clinton 40%, McCain 39%, Bloomberg/undecided/other 21%.