The North Carolina State Board of Elections has finished its election returns for the November 8, 2016 election. Jill Stein received 12,104 write-ins for president. This is the largest number of presidential write-ins ever recorded in a North Carolina general election. The previous record had been Ralph Nader’s 1996 showing of 2,108.

It is conceivable that Ralph Nader might have received even more than 12,104 for president in North Carolina in 2000, his strongest year. However, because he didn’t qualify to have his write-ins tallied in 2000, no one will ever know. North Carolina won’t tally presidential write-ins unless the candidate files and submits a petition signed by 500 registered voters.

The November 2016 returns also show that 47,381 write-ins for president, for candidates other than Jill Stein, were cast. North Carolina county election officials were thus obliged to examine a total of 59,485 presidential write-ins, in order to tally the Stein write-ins. This was undoubtably costly and time-consuming. One hopes that North Carolina county election officials will realize that if Stein had been on the ballot, taxpayer money and resources would have been saved. If county election officials asked the legislature for a liberalization of the ballot access laws, at least for president, the legislature might listen. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for the news.