Mabfan's Musings

I received a vote for judge today.

Any chance of winning?

Doubtful. Nobody knew I was running, except me. Hell, I didn't even know until I got into the booth.

Judge whose views I strongly disagree with was running unopposed.

Why do you assume no one else wrote you in?

It's possible someone else wrote me in, but the only other person I suggested vote for me told me that he's writing in his own name.

I suppose I could edit this to say "Number of votes I know I have received for president," but that seems unwieldy.

w00t! I'm only one vote behind you then!

My best friend in college had an old friend from high school days named Kevin Smith. No, not that one. Kevin wound up at UMass, and in the nascent days of the 1980 presidential primaries, some pollsters came to Amherst to scope out the students' preferences.

Kevin, apparently, had always had a thing about how fun it would be if game show host Jack Barry got elected President. "Should I invade Iran? ::spins:: Joker, Joker, Devil. Oops, better not. How about a tax cut? ::spins:: Joker, Joker, JOKER!"

(The resulting Reagan administration pretty much ran like that, only with astrologers.)

So he got all his friends to join him in telling the pollster that they were all voting for Jack Barry. I never did see a story about it, but it always warmed my heart to know there were such subversives out there.

Hmm. Depending on what tober does, you and I might be tied. (Woo, I'm Constitutionally eligible for the first time in a Presidential election year!)

What fun!

In my state (Michigan) you would not get the vote. I mean, someone could write your name, but that vote is invalidated. To be a write-in that counts, you must register as a candidate with the state (which involves a minimal filing fee) and give your signatory proof that you are willing to serve if called.

This was done for several reasons. First, to take the load off of poll workers who had to put in not only every "Mickey Mouse" write-in, but any spelling variation thereof as well. (Spelling counts in write-in votes.) But mostly to avoid the problem of someone getting the office and then refusing it. (It happens more often than you might think in local-level elections.)

Same in IL, probably true in most states. Much too hard to tally otherwise.

Whenever I hear people talking about write-ins, I sigh, because impromptu ones never do anything except add extra complication for the poll workers, who already have a 16-hour day.

Ah, but there are times when write-ins are important. We've had races in Brookline Town Meeting where a write-in candidate managed to win a seat.

Most of the time, I suspect the write-ins are so few that they are ignored until the final tallies are done days later.

Oh, I completely agree! A neighbor of mine ran as a last-minute write-in (officially) and won...

... except the election judges had forgotten to look for any write ins, and tallied him up with zero votes. He knew he'd voted for himself at least! Big mess, and the reason why I got involved in election judging.

But, when the write-ins are not registered, they still need to be analyzed and compared to the list, one-by-one, manually, at the end of of an already long day. The only people who see silly write-ins are the poll workers, and they're not at all amused.

LOL! That's too funny.

My father didn't like the candidates in one of the elections, but couldn't write himself in because he was born in Canada. So my mother got a vote that year.