For the last few years, some Oregon election officials have been trying to get permission to stop printing the full names of political parties on general election ballots, and replace the full names with three-letter abbreviations. On February 23, the Oregon House Rules Committee considered an amendment to HB 4173 to authorize abbreviations.
But, after some publicity about the bill, the idea was not adopted. See this news story about the idea. The publicity seems to have helped defeat the idea. Only a handful of states use party abbreviations on ballots instead of the full name of parties. Among them are Hawaii, Virginia and some counties in Florida. Thanks to Dan Meek for this news.
Oregon should get rid of (con)fusion voting.
Ok, let’s think about for a second. You are a voter who doesn’t follow politics very much, especially 3rd party politics. You walk into the voting booth without doing a bunch of research on the candidates and parties. Maybe you glanced at the local paper to read a few profiles. (This probably describes most voters, BTW.) You look at your ballot and see this:
PRO – Name (pro-what?)
CON – Name (con-what?)
LBT – Name (lesbian-bi-transgender?)
DEM – Name (I think I know this one!)
PGP – Name (wth is PGP?)
How many people would actually know that it means Progressive, Constitution, Libertarian, Democrat, etc.?
I thought it meant PROhibition, CONservative, Let’s Buy Tuna Party (sorta like Rent Is Too Damned High), DEMons and People Go Partying Party. Was I close?
If the problem is lack of space on the ballot, it would be better to require longer names or strings of names to be printed in a smaller typeface than to use cryptic abbreviations.
In other countries where they use abbreviations, they often use particular colors or emblems for each party. Of course, there’d have to effort put into creating that identification, via nightly TV spots for each party?
As a person who has sight issues, I do worry about small print for the semi-blind like me, or people with poor eyesight due to age and such. That’s why a color or emnblem could be useful?
@2 PGP = pretty good privacy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
See also some other meanings at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pgp
Deran, the origin of party symbols was for illiterates. That’s why they are still used today. The problem with them, however, is when they become similar. Here in West Virginia, the Democrats have always uses a rooster (why, I do not know), Republicans use the splayed federal eagle, and the Constitution Party uses an eagle head. Houston, we have a problem. The CPWV is switching to a minuteman, but then the Libertarians are probably going to squawk.
Why don’t they put the party’s name first and in upper case letters with bold font and just abbreviate the person’s name to 3 initials?
I think the only names on a ballot should be the name(s) written in by the voter representing his/her choices for the office.
How did this pre-selection of candidates ever get a toe-hold? It ought to be against the law for some mob to limit the candidates that a voter can vote for.
http://28amen.org/uea_amendment.html
It’s a start. Any and all help with it’s perfection and enactment appreciated.
Here’s a website more germane to the this discussion…
http://28amen.org
than the other…
http://robinlea.com/wordpress
I’ve forgotten which state it was, but several years ago when the old Taxpayers Party was active, the candidates listed on the ballot in that particular state had the abbreviation of TAX by their names. I’m sure that label won them alot of votes.
Do the States having abbreviations have a full name listing on or near the ballots ???
IF NO, then more EVIL corruption by the robot party hacks.
I wonder how they would have treated it if both the Progressive and the Phohibition Parties made the ballot.
Three letters is just not enough in some cases.
Would the state choose the party abbreviation, or the party itself?
I’m sure the Pacific Green Party would have gone with GRN instead of PGP, and the Constitution Party with CST, as it is in some other states, than CON.
@3, I think I’d like to join the People Go Partying Party — sure beats the DEMons and the REProbates.
Many ballots in 3rd/4th world nations have logos/symbols.
Some advanced regimes have mini pictures of the candidates.