On July 15, the West Virginia Democratic Party won a procedural ruling in Nelson v Warner, s.d., 3:19cv-898. This is a Democratic Party case against the law concerning the order of candidates on general election ballots. It says the party that won the presidential election within that state at the last election shall have the top line.
The 20-page ruling says the party and the other plaintiffs have standing. It is likely that a decision on the merits will be released during August 2020. The case is before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chambers, a Clinton appointee.
The Democratic Party has won a somewhat similar case in Minnesota this year, and has lost similar cases on procedural grounds in Arizona and Florida. Its Texas lawsuit is still undecided.
Too many really stupid WV voters unable to read —
only able to vote for top candidate for each office ???
How many States with Party votes top listing machination stuff ???
—
Half ballots A-Z
Half ballots Z-A
Thank you for your wonderful insight, Mr. Jones.
Are there any studies that show if ballot position influences voters? Is this a tempest in a teapot?
Plenty of studies. This has been studied for over 40 years by many political scientists. All these cases have dueling political science witnesses.
I think ballot order only helps third parties, as in the third choice will usually get more votes than fourth and lower. It doesn’t affect the two major parties.
With an open all write-in ballot voters decide who is number one and monopoly priority issues are mooted.
Justice DFR to decipher ALL the write-in BAAAADDEE handwriting — in time before terms expire/start ???
Again — see that 2010 AK USA Senator write-in super-mess —
MerCOWSKEE ??? etc.
@WZ,
Generally it is in effectively non-partisan races.
There was a Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Justice, between two candidates named Green, Rick and Paul. For Texas primaries, ballot order is determined by lot in each county.
Generally speaking, the first listed Green won the county. The popular vote was 52-48, the county split was 136-114-1. Paul might have prevailed by winning his home county of Bexar, despite being listed second.