On November 15, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker struck down the Florida law that says the candidates listed first on the general election ballot, for partisan races, will be the nominees of the party that won the last gubernatorial election. Jacobson v Lee, n.d. 4:18cv-262.
The 74-page opinion gets to the merits on page 26. The first 26 pages clear away procedural objections to the lawsuit, which was filed by the Democratic Party last year.
The opinion merely says that the existing law is unconstitutional, and does not tell the state how to change it. The opinion suggests that putting candidates on the ballot in alphabetical order would be easier, administratively, than rotating names.
Footnote 21 lists the states that do not give one particular party an advantage relating to ballot order, and has citations to the laws of each of those states.
The opinion does not suggest in any way that only the Democratic Party nominees should benefit from the ruling. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news and the link.
Many countries list the candidates in surname order with no regard to party or incumbency or who won sn election for an unrelated office
For Australian federal elections the order is determine by lot – there is a drawing of lots to determine the order in which the lots that determine the names appear on the ballot are drawn. The order for the first ballot is based on the order in which nomnation papers are submitted.
In Tasmaina for its state legislature elections they do change the order on the ballot papers in which candidates appear in. This is done when the papers are printed. So the first paper in the book could be 1,2,3,4 then the second 4,2,1,3, nd the third 3,1,4,2 and so on. It dosen’t appear to cause any particular issues and overall no candidate has an advantage because they have a name lower down the alphabet. And it means people actually have to look at the ballot!
My preferred system is that all names are randomly sorted on each ballot. Oklahoma does this for primary elections. In this system, no one party or candidate can benefit from top line bias.
However, Oklahoma does party order in the general election, and that order is determined by lot. The Election board randomly selects the order of qualified parties and all candidates are listed in that order. Independent candidates are always last, and in alphabetical order by last name if more than one independent runs in the same race. Not the ideal way, but better than Florida’s unconstitutional system.
HALF PRECINCTS A-Z
HALF PRECINCTS Z-A
MUCH TOO DIFFICULT IN THIS NEW DARK AGE OF MATH MORONS ???
M’s ALWAYS GET SCREWED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
every X elections —
Half M-N
Half N-M
Slove for X
What year for
Half C-B
Half B-C ???
Slove >>> Solve
New York does tht, and nobody has ever sued. I believe several other states do too.
What a hack judge. There simply is no justification for the language on page 34.
If 5% of ALL voters choose based on ballot order, does this vary based on demographics?
Is the long ballot a problem?
Does ballot primacy exhibit itself in the UK or Canada where there is a singular race on the ballot?
Perhaps fewer DUMB see Donkey / vote Donkey voters in UK, Canada, India, etc. ???
ANY moron pollster questions on the subject ???
Aardvark names beat Zebra names ALL the time ???
How about in advertising – fast food joints ???
Alphabetical would seem like an easy solution. Maybe rotate it from A-Z to Z-A.
Will candidates change their names if alpha order first is required/known in advance ???
IE — RANDOM– AFTER candidate deadline ???
Demo Rep.
Maybe. But a legal name change does require some paperwork and calla to credit card companies.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-gov-appeals-judge-ruling-195110571.html
U.S.
Florida governor appeals court rulings on voting
Associated Press•November 15, 2019
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Legal skirmishes over Florida elections were being fought on two fronts Friday, as a pair of federal court cases underscored the crucial role the state could play in next year’s election.
No detail is trivial, as Republicans and Democrats battle over the order of names on ballots and who ultimately is eligible to cast those ballots, a contentious point in a state that has had myriad controversies over nationally important elections decided by razor-thin margins.
Florida’s Republican governor filed an appeal Friday in a bid to lift a federal judge’s temporary order allowing some felons to regain voting rights despite failing to settle unpaid fines and other legal debts.
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More 2000 Bush v Gore type ops in 2020 by SCOTUS ???
Michigan party ballot order is affected by both MCL 168.532 (for parties that qualified for the primaries) and MCL 168.686(5) (for parties that did not qualify for the primaries). For the projected 2020 order (pending the possibility that a new party qualifies, or a party already on the ballot fails to certify its nominations), see:
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/sos/Political_Party_Status_482649_7.pdf