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Jokester write in votes

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  • pcolapaddler

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    Now that the election is over, I just thought that I would bring up something for consideration.

    Every election where there are write-in candidates, we see a large number of what I'll call joke write-ins. You know, Santa Claus, Pat Paulsen, etc.

    While acknowledging that a person has the right to write in any name they wish, I wonder if this whole recount exercise could have been avoided if these folks had chosen a legitimate candidate. If the raw number of write-in votes in Escambia county is any indication of what happened in the rest of the state, we may have avoided the recount altogether or perhaps the manual tally of overvotes/undervotes.

    Thoughts or opinions?

    Sent from the largest mountain range in Florida.
     

    TK5o

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    What exactly is a over or under vote? I thought they were all votes to be counted towards the total votes of the individual who was voted for
     

    Ric-san

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    Now that the election is over, I just thought that I would bring up something for consideration.

    Every election where there are write-in candidates, we see a large number of what I'll call joke write-ins. You know, Santa Claus, Pat Paulsen, etc.

    While acknowledging that a person has the right to write in any name they wish, I wonder if this whole recount exercise could have been avoided if these folks had chosen a legitimate candidate. If the raw number of write-in votes in Escambia county is any indication of what happened in the rest of the state, we may have avoided the recount altogether or perhaps the manual tally of overvotes/undervotes.

    Thoughts or opinions?

    Sent from the largest mountain range in Florida.

    Under-votes are folks like you mentioned that didn’t choose one of the printed choices, and writes one in OR choose not to pick one at all.
    Overvotes are the idiots that mark more than one choice.

    I’m still trying to figure out how when goiing to a manual recount the ‘volunteers’ actually get to decide what the intent of the voter was. In my book you either do it correctly by the instructions OR it does not count at all.
     

    TK5o

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    Exactly. Follow instructions (preferably in English) or it doesnt count. But the whole under/over thing seems too confusing. Probably terms created by a politician. Ha. It should be either you get a vote or you dont
     

    pcolapaddler

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    I’m still trying to figure out how when goiing to a manual recount the ‘volunteers’ actually get to decide what the intent of the voter was. In my book you either do it correctly by the instructions OR it does not count at all.

    Count teams of two persons - one from each party examine ballots. If they determine that a vote has been cast for a candidate, that vote is recorded. If they can't agree or make a decision, the ballot goes to the canvassing board.

    The canvassing board makes the final decision. Guidelines that provide standards for determining when a valid vote can be recorded are used by the canvassing board in making these decisions.


    Sent from the largest mountain range in Florida.
     
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