Poll Workers Don’t Like Counting Write-In Votes
Too bad. I really don’t appreciate listening to these folks whine about doing their jobs. Yeah, I agree that it’s a waste of time to write in Mickey Mouse, but don’t try to tell me I can’t vote against a candidate who has no official opposition or vote for Loretta Nall for governor. And it’s interesting that the article doesn’t even mention her.
This irks me:
[Tim] Baer [Jefferson County elections supervisor] said he did not keep track of totals when he knew the election would not be affected. For example, he pointed to an unopposed candidate in a race that had a few hundred write-ins against several thousand votes cast for the candidate.
Really? Does that mean the election record shows the unopposed candidate received 100% of the vote? “A few hundred” to “several thousand” could be a substantial percentage, and it would clearly indicate that the candidate is not really unopposed.
As long as Alabama’s ballot access laws remain so stringent and it costs so much to run for office in the first place, voters aren’t always going to find the best choices pre-printed for them when they go to the polls. We have the right to vote for someone other than the officially sanctioned candidates in each race, and poll workers — who are paid out of our tax money — just need to suck it up and count the votes.
November 21st, 2006 at 8:10 am
Amen!
November 21st, 2006 at 8:45 am
Double Amen Kathy!!
It royally pissed me off when I found out that I had 189 votes cast for me in Shelby Co. which placed me dead center between Moore and Barkley. I was the only one running a write-in campaign and they could not be bothered to report on me even though I had 89 more votes than one of those they reported on who wasn’t even running.
I am dead set on running a write-in campaign every election until the ballot access laws are changed. It sickens me that the first solution offered is to ban write-in votes. The ballot access laws are the problem. I am encouraging people to write LTE’s slamming the ballot access laws and the lazy, whiny poll workers. I hope this is enough to tick everyone off to the point of ACTION! If this mentality keeps up then pretty soon your vote won’t count if you declilne to vote for the state sanctioned candidates. See, Iraq does have better laws than we do here in Alabamastan.
November 21st, 2006 at 10:25 am
Here is my Letter to the Editor of various newspapers around Alabama.
Please consider writing your own.
November 21st, 2006 at 11:27 am
What ticks me off is that one of those “unopposed candidates” that he’s talking about is Spencer Bachus, whom I very happily voted against by writing in Warren Grayon’s name. (Grayson was running a write-in campaign against Bachus.) What he’s telling me is that my vote doesn’t count.
November 21st, 2006 at 11:28 am
I sent this blog post, with a few changes, to the Birmingham News. I see there’s already one letter to the editor (scroll down) addressing this today.
November 21st, 2006 at 11:33 am
Yes Alabama Moderate that is exactly what they are saying.
The BHAM News is printing the following version of my LTE sent earlier today. This is a HOT topic and good letters sent addressing it are likely to be printed. Please write one….we desperately need to be heard on this one.
Edited Version:
Dear Editor,
In light of the recent surge Alabama saw in write-in votes cast in the general election and the ensuing outcry from poll workers to ban the practice, I’d like to offer the following perspective and possible solution.
The ballot access laws are the real problem, one created solely by the government.
Third party and independent candidates for statewide office must collect around 41,300 registered voter signatures in order to have their name placed on the ballot. Neither of the two major parties has to meet this requirement.
And what is the first solution we see put forth to address the problem?
“Let’s BAN it!” Politicians would actually seek to further restrict the citizen’s right to vote and make it so that our votes count only if we cast it for them. That’s like saying you can have any flavor ice cream you want as long as it’s vanilla.
As a voter and former write-in candidate for Governor I find that mentality most offensive.
The fact that so many write-in votes were cast, be they for me, Roy Moore, Charles Barkley or someone else should serve as a clear warning that citizens are tired of this two-party system. We want more choices on the ballot NOT LESS. We should demand that our elections process at least be as fair and equitable as the one in Iraq where there were 75 political parties and 111 candidates on the ballot in the last election.
Is that too much to ask?
Respectfully Submitted,
Loretta Nall
November 21st, 2006 at 1:10 pm
As usual, Mrs. Nall hit the nail directly on its head.
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:59 am
Well, here’s the letter I sent to most Alabama papers yesterday:
“May I, as an independent voter, express my disgust with just two among several aspects of our electoral process?
Firstly, it is with certain election officials who have been quoted in some newspapers sniveling because they had to expend a little extra effort and time processing lawfully generated write-in votes as is their duty under law.
Secondly, and primarily, it is with Alabama’s obscenely overly restrictive ballot access law which was instituted by democratic and republican legislators with the intent of making our elections excusive to just them, and shutting out of the process other candidates who offer different and frequently better ideas on how to govern. This is to the detriment of Alabamians who don’t hear those views expressed as a direct consequence of those candidates being denied ballot and debate access.
Those few voters who found ways to access the views of minor party candidates expressed their support for them at the ballot box, and now the tally of their votes seems to be a mystery.
November 27th, 2006 at 9:22 am
[...] My letter to the editor regarding poll workers’ complaints about counting write-in votes was published today in the Birmingham News, right below Loretta Nall’s on the same subject. Cool [...]