Evan McMullin and the Hurdles for Write-In Candidates This Year

[libertybele]

Each state has their own voting rules, but this is something to consider and something I have been questioning. It is now my understanding, that if a candidate has not pre-qualified as a write in candidate and your write them in; your vote won't count.

Evan McMullin and the Hurdles for Write-In Candidates This Year

Independent conservative presidential candidate Evan McMullin will appear on the ballot in Virginia. This may be more significant than it looks, because two new polls have Hillary Clinton only narrowly ahead of Donald Trump in the state; for a long while, Clinton enjoyed big leads, with her margin ahead of Trump sometimes hitting double-digit. This also indicates that the McMullin campaign staff, small as it is, has done its homework. A write-in candidate in Virginia must meet certain criteria to qualify: Write-in votes for President and Vice President shall be counted only for candidates who have filed a joint declaration of intent to be write-in candidates for the offices with the Secretary of the State Board not less than ten days before the date of the presidential election. The declaration of intent shall be on a form prescribed by the State Board and shall include a list of presidential electors pledged to those candidates which equals the whole number of senators and representatives to which the Commonwealth at that time is entitled in the Congress of the United States. A write-in vote cast for candidates for President and Vice President, or for a candidate for President only, shall be counted for the individual electors listed on the declaration of intent as pledged to those candidates. In other words, if you’re a disgruntled conservative in Virginia who decides to write in “Ted Cruz” or some other non-declared candidate, the vote won’t count.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/439705/evan-mcmullin-and-hurdles-write-candidates-year
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/439705/evan-mcmullin-and-hurdles-write-candidates-year

[libertybele]

For further clarification, I contacted my local Supervisor of Elections office.  He confirmed that IF you vote for a person who has NOT applied for and NOT qualified as a presidential 'write in' candidate, writing in that person WILL NOT count.  Secondly, I asked him if that disqualifies down ballot votes and he said no; every contest is considered separately.