wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/09/84)
Hmm... This inspires a thought: Given this (realistic?) situation: Postulate a local election in a small community, for an office such as mayor or councilman or the like. There are a couple "official" declared candidates for the office, whose names are on the ballot. There is also a space for a write-in. On election day, most of the voters (over 51%) write in the name "John Johnson" in the write-in space for this office. Now here's the key point: there are MULTIPLE "John Johnson"s living in this town, all qualified for election to this office. None of them has campaigned or otherwise indicated that they wanted to be elected on a "write-in" basis. What is the result? I can think of several possibilities: 1) The election is declared void and re-held. However, if none of the "John Johnson"s declare as candidates, the situation will recur indefinitely. 2) All the "John Johnson" votes are held to be for one of them, and he is declared the winner. (But how would the one be determined?) 3) All the "John Johnson" votes are declared invalid, and thrown out. Whichever of the "official" candidates had the most votes wins. 4) Everybody spends the rest of their lives in court over this. Does anybody have any idea what the various state election laws have to say about this situation? I would assume the result would vary from state to state. Comments or discussion? Will Martin
greenber@acf4.UUCP (10/11/84)
<> I've always held this fantasy: Allow people to vote for d)None of the Above. If None of the Above wins, then the person in office stays in office for an additional six months and a new election is held wherein the persons running in the last campaign (possible including the incumbant) are forbidden from running again. This continues until some candidate wins. Ross M. Greenberg @ NYU ----> allegra!cmcl2!acf4!greenber <----