On September 14, the New York Conservative Party, and the New York Working Families Party, jointly filed a lawsuit in federal court over how votes are counted. The problem, which is a new problem in New York state this year, is that some voters inevitably vote for the same candidate twice when that voter sees the name of a preferred candidate who is listed twice on the ballot, once under each party label.
This was not a problem (except for a tiny number of ballots cast on paper absentee votes) until this year. Before this year, votes in New York were almost entirely cast on mechanical voting machines, and the machines physically prevented voters from making that error. Under the new system, the Board credits the vote to the party that is listed first on the ballot. The Democratic and Republican Parties have the first and second lines on the ballot, so they get credit for the vote, not the minor party. The case is Conservative Party of New York et al v New York State Board of Elections, 10cv-6923, southern district. It was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff, a Clinton appointee. Thanks to Joseph Lorenzo Hall for the news. The lawsuit is being handled by the Brennan Center.
So, the right-wing of the Republican Party and the left-wing of the Democratic Party are aggrieved. Too bad for them. They made lousy choices this year, and now are scrambling just to pick up the 50,000 votes they need to protect their subordinate status on the ballot. Fusion is fusion, and craven is just craven.
Maybe they will get a court ruling that each line will be counted separately, which will result in bazillions of boutique parties, and voters will be encouraged to multi-vote. The ballot type will have to be ever smaller, and it will eventually lead to some sort of election failure.
The Brennan Center will then issue a report on ballot design, and be able to include a footnote to the lawsuit that caused the problem in the first place.
I viewed the 2/18/2010 archived New York State Board of Elections meeting. Anna Svizzero of Election Operations on the Board explained to the Board members that in the General Election with Fusion voting, if a voter filled in the oval for the same candidate on multiple party lines it would count as a valid vote and not give the voter a chance to eject the ballot and re-vote. The other issue was which oval would count and it is the first selected oval either top to bottom or left to right depending on the county’s ballot format. They did not explain the reason just the process.
So if a voter selected the same candidate from multiple minor parties, the first selected oval world be counted. Ex. the Independence Party (IP)and the Working Families Party (WPF). Because the IP comes before the WFP, the IP would get the vote for that candidate. Not any of the major parties.
The US Parliament New York Super-state Circuit #2
New York
http://www.usparliament.org/ss2.htm
Louis Binetti [Green], Vincent D’Agostino [Republican], Dave Holland [Democratic], Lawrence Durfey [Independent], Juan T. Morel [Non-Party], Brian Carroll [Pot], Dank Treess [Pot], Gogh [Gogh], King Shabazz [Info. Not Avail.]
The IDIOT-MORONS in the NY regime do NOT have —
Vote for O-N-E — on the ballots for a single office ???
What sayeth the Voter Instructions for Dummies – NY version ???