You know, in the old days, the second place runner for presidency would be the Vice President. Hence “vice”. I think that was a pretty good idea. Some say no president would get anything done that way, but I think it would be better to have two guys arguing for everyone’s interests than to have two guys supporting only half the country. That’s what we have now. The elections are becoming so close that no matter who wins, quite nearly half the country loses, having no representation in the highest office of government.

That got a little off-topic.

Here’s the catch: there were 4,180 ballots where voters legibly wrote in Donna Frye’s name, but forgot to fill in the bubble all or completely. So yes, voters took the time to write in Donna Frye’s name, but because they forgot to also fill in the bubble alongside the write-in line, these ballots were not counted. Thrown out. Void.

So what best displays the will of the voter, not filling in the bubble or physically writing out someone’s name? Gotta love it.

Just think, no matter who ends up being certified the winner, you’ll have an entire gubenatorial term to savor the constant whining and carping about the “stolen election” by local partisans. Whee.

And I’m saying this even though I would vote Democrat if I could, and so my candidate is currently winning.

By the way, on an almost related note, the P.U.-litzer Prizes For 2004 is worth a read. I love the first one about “Mandate Mania” – makes a great point.

It sounds awful, but unfortunately that is the reality of elections for very practical purposes. In order to stop fraud and cheating in the elections, and make it possible to actually count ‘votes’ instead of divining ‘intent’, the rules are there.

I don’t really care who wins the WA gubnatorial election, because I moved to the east coast nine years ago, but what upsets me is the total disregard for election law and statutes. Suddenly 300 votes show up out of nowhere that were ‘misplaced’ in unsecured boxes for days and they are COUNTED?

I’m not surprised the Rebpublicans have called for the addition of ‘undercounted’ votes in other counties besides King County. I don’t see how Gregoire could claim to want to find out who ‘really’ won the election and go for undercounted votes in Democrat King County only. Doesn’t make sense.

If you ask me, no extra votes should be counted (they are all invalid). But if you’re going to insist on opening that can of worms, then you have to apply the same standard to ALL districts and votes.

It’s a mess.

Now, as for the run off that was voted for in Washington. It passed. Fairly well too, if I recall correctly. However, several third parties are challenging it on the grounds that the Washington state constitution clearly states all registered parties must be represented equally and fairly. The courts will almost definitely throw the new propisition because of this.

Of course, it’s the Libertarians that are pushing it most, with Ruth Bennett (their gubernatorial candidate) at the helm. It should be noted that she is now considered the reason Gregoire didn’t win outright. Taking over 2 percent of the vote, and mostly from counties Gregoire also did well in, it’s almost certain that if she hadn’t run, Gregoire would have won. We’ll just have to see where it goes from here.

One thing I find odd in San Diego is that if you DO NOT fill in the cirlce completely (i.e. you place an “X” or a check mark) your circle will be filled in for you by someone else’s hand during the counting process. I remember seeing on the local news how it was fairly unclear as to how or what you had to do when voting for a write-in candidate. I think if a circle with an “X” or a check can be filled in by someone else than a write-in vote that clearly states who that person is voting for should have it’s circle filled in by someone else as well.

Stupid election crap!

I am currently a student at Kansas State University, and ran for Student Body President/Vice President this past year, with my running mate as the presidential candidate. The total votes were 6,241, and we received 3,122 of them, a 3 vote difference (0.00048%). In our elections, we have a primary election, and then the top two move on to the general elections, so in our case, the majority of the votes went towards the elected ticket.

Naturally, a recount was demanded, but none was needed. Our elections system is all electronic, secure, and controlled through our university authentication system. This brings on an entirely new debate which I will not even start to get into on the national level, but maybe I’ll spark some nice debate on this issue!

An interesting side note, our main platform issue was to bring a Student Information Portal to the students at K-State, and we are deploying it in January, using web standards, with customized CSS theming and all. No sIFR yet (sorry Mike) but maybe that will come in Version 2.

If you would like to learn more, visit these links:
K-State Collegian Article
Open Source Student Portal we are using (SINAPSE)

The Presidential election is the only one that is individual based and not party based (i.e. You vote on the man and not on his party or affiliation) and so our Constitution demands that the winner has to have a majority of the votes.
If that doesn’t happen, the 1st and 2nd runners-up will dispute a 2nd Round alone, so a winner can emerge.

The system works well enough in Portugal (and I know that a lot of other countries have the same system) but I don’t know if you couldn’t apply it to the U.S. Presidential Elections, because you’re not really voting for a man, you’re electing an Electoral College that will then elect a president, isn’t it? (please do correct me if I’m wrong)

I think a more viable alternative would be to distribute evenly the electoral votes among all the candidates according to vote percentage. That way, a narrow victory wins you a couple more electoral votes, not ALL of them.
If I’m not mistaken some states already have a policy somewhat like this one, so its not even that original.

Sounds a lot like Instant Runoff Voting, an idea whose time has definitely come.