The write-in votes were counted on Friday, March 23, in the Pennsylvania special election, 197th district in Philadelphia. Democrat Emilio Vazquez received 1,970; the runner-up, Cheri Honkala, was credited with 282 write-ins. See this story.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Once again Americans proved they are moronic when comes to againist their interest like child raised by their dysfunctional parents.
(P2) And keep voting the same problem just because its “tradition” or change your to same opposite party, Because it will never change nothing.
One wonders if she HAD been on the ballot would it have made much difference?
Twice, the Green Party elected a state legislator in Arkansas, because both times the Green was the only name printed on the ballot. Both times Democrats ran write-in campaigns, but the write-in campaigns didn’t win.
Two misc things
1) Little’s 7% has to be the lowest total by a candidate who had no on-ballot opposition since Byron Low Tax Looper losing 93%-5 in 1998. Would 7% be a record low total for somebody who had no opposition on the ballot among candidates who weren’t arrested for murdering their opponent during the election?
2) Vazquez ran for the PA State House in 2006 as a write-in against Tony Payton and lost by 19 votes in an election that took until October to settle due to controversy over the write-ins. Vazquez was kicked off the ballot in that election for not listing his employer. Payton capped off his legislative career by being kicked off the ballot in 2012. So it’s almost like petition snafus are very common in that part of Philadelphia.
Richard, I believe that the reason the Greens won in Arkansas is that write-ins were not counted.
I don’t find the turnout in this election to be particularly low. Off year elections frequently have turn out under 20%. Most casual voters won’t turn out if only a minority party has a candidate on the ballot. This is just a case of a ruling party doing what’s necessary to keep a seat.
I wonder how much the Greens spent on this.
The Arkansas official election returns do show a tally of write-ins, in both legislative elections that the Greens won. The total number of write-ins was far below what the Green Party nominee received, in each election.
@Clay, Honkala raised about $90,000 according to the reports in the press. This is one reason why the results seems suspicious.
Just because you raise a lot of money doesn’t mean people are going to vote for you. There was a Congressional election in New York where the Greens raised $50,000 and got 500 votes. There comes a point where you have to acknowledge that the conspiracy against a party is so vast that it might as well be considered mainstream thought. I think Greens need to work on simply saying “we’re probably going to lose. We want to win”. That sounds so much better than coming up with excuses.