Write-in Candidate Elected County Commissioner in Garrett County, Maryland

At the November 2, 2010 election, Garrett County, Maryland voters elected a write-in candidate to seat 3 of the County Board of Commissioners.  The election is partisan.  The county was elected three at-large commissioners.  Write-in candidate Bob Gatto received 4,112 votes; Democratic nominee Bill Welch received 2,824; Republican nominee Dennis Glotfelty received 1,947 votes.  Two other declared write-in candidates received 170 votes.

Glotfelty had won the September 2010 primary but then had died of cancer only twelve days before the election.  Before he died, he asked voters to write-in Gatto, whom Glotfelty had defeated in the Republican primary.  Thanks to Jeff Becker for this news.

Portland Press Herald Articles Says Maine is Studying Instant Runoff Voting

This article in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald covers various groups and individuals in Maine who are studying Instant Runoff Voting, or thinking about it.  As the article points out, the newly-elected Governor won with only 38% of the total vote in November, and six of Maine’s last seven gubernatorial elections have produced winners who received less than a majority of the vote.

The article concludes by pointing out that the legislature is unlikely to approve the idea, but the article does not mention that Maine has the initiative process.  Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the link.

New York City Council Survey Shows New York Ballot Design is Voters' Number One Complaint

The New York city council held an election day survey, and has released its findings.  They reveal that New York city voters’ top complaint about administration of the November 2, 2010 election is the confusing ballot design.  See here.  Thanks to Michael Drucker’s The Independent View for this news.

New York, starting this year, uses paper ballots.  Virtually all other states that use paper ballots designs the ballots so that all the candidates running for one particular office are grouped together.  But New York designs the paper ballots as though the state were still using mechanical voting machines.  When New York used mechanical voting machines, the state used a party column (or party row) format.  Because the mechanical voting machines didn’t have enough rows (or columns) for all the parties, the mechanical voting machines would generally put two parties into the same column.

Now that New York has given up mechanical voting machines, there is no rational reason to maintain that old format, but New York’s paper general election ballots this year mindlessly kept that old format.  The only unqualified party this year that had its own separate column was the Green Party.  And, the only unqualified party this year that definitely polled enough votes to become qualified is the Green Party.

A rational system would mean that each voter would receive more than one ballot card.  There is nothing inherently wrong with giving each voter more than a single card to vote on.  If two or even three cards were permitted, then tiny print would not need to be so tiny, and all the candidates and parties could be treated equally.  Of course not every candidate or party can have the top line on the ballot, but at least the ballot could be arranged to avoid gross discrimination.

New York City Council Survey Shows New York Ballot Design is Voters’ Number One Complaint

The New York city council held an election day survey, and has released its findings.  They reveal that New York city voters’ top complaint about administration of the November 2, 2010 election is the confusing ballot design.  See here.  Thanks to Michael Drucker’s The Independent View for this news.

New York, starting this year, uses paper ballots.  Virtually all other states that use paper ballots designs the ballots so that all the candidates running for one particular office are grouped together.  But New York designs the paper ballots as though the state were still using mechanical voting machines.  When New York used mechanical voting machines, the state used a party column (or party row) format.  Because the mechanical voting machines didn’t have enough rows (or columns) for all the parties, the mechanical voting machines would generally put two parties into the same column.

Now that New York has given up mechanical voting machines, there is no rational reason to maintain that old format, but New York’s paper general election ballots this year mindlessly kept that old format.  The only unqualified party this year that had its own separate column was the Green Party.  And, the only unqualified party this year that definitely polled enough votes to become qualified is the Green Party.

A rational system would mean that each voter would receive more than one ballot card.  There is nothing inherently wrong with giving each voter more than a single card to vote on.  If two or even three cards were permitted, then tiny print would not need to be so tiny, and all the candidates and parties could be treated equally.  Of course not every candidate or party can have the top line on the ballot, but at least the ballot could be arranged to avoid gross discrimination.

Write-in Candidate for Wyoming Governor Defeats Democratic Opponent in Five Counties

Taylor Haynes, a conservative write-in candidate for Governor of Wyoming last week, outpolled his Democratic opponent in five counties.  Haynes received 13,796 write-ins in the state, which was 7.41% of the total vote cast for identified candidates.

In Campbell, Converse, Crook, Niobrara, and Weston Counties, Haynes received more votes than the Democratic nominee, Leslie Petersen.  Haynes’ best county was Campbell County, where he received 26.1%.

The three ballot-listed candidates were Republican Matt Mead, who got 66.5%; Democrat Petersen, who got 23.2%; and Libertarian Mike Wheeler, who got 2.9%.

Write-in Candidate Elected Sheriff of Sublette County, Wyoming

The results of the race for Sheriff of Sublette County, Wyoming, from November 2, 2010, are:  write-in candidate Dave Lankford 1,310 votes; Republican nominee John Wells 1,008; independent candidate Stephen Haskell 621 votes; independent candidate Mike Edison 304 votes; other write-ins 71.  Democrats did not run anyone.

Lankford’s wife, Mary Lankford, is county clerk of Sublette County, so she recused herself from any role in canvassing the write-in votes.  Here are the official election returns, which, oddly, do not include the name of the winning write-in candidate.  Wyoming has a peculiar tradition of canvassing write-in votes for write-in candidates who request this service, yet not include the names of these write-in candidates in the official election returns.  The source of Lankford’s vote total is this newspaper story.