Common Sense

I totally missed this post from Muse on the procedure for write-in candidates.

First of all, according to the Secretary of State’s Office, a person has to declare themselves as a write-in candidate by August 29th. For congressional office, there is a filing fee of $3125 and a requirement of 500 signautres.

The Texas Election Code spells out all the details of how things go from there, after the filing takes place. Assuming the write-in candidate is certified, the list of certified write-in candidates will be posted at the polls. Their names will NOT go on the ballot. Only write-in votes for certified write-in candidates will be counted. In other words, if you vote for Elvis as your write-in candidate, it is safe to say he wasn’t certified and that vote won’t be counted.

Here’s the kicker. We use e-slate voting machines in Fort Bend County. That means the voter has to dial in each letter of the write-in candidate’s name and then click it in.

There just is no accounting for the human element in voting, but these facts please me greatly. The reason DeLay wanted to be replaced on the ballot instead of going this route is self-evident. If someone has to actually turn the click wheel on the e-Slate voting device and select every letter of the write-in candidate’s name, then many people won’t bother to do that.

Voting in our culture isn’t a privelege, it is a hassle. We do it before work or on our way home with groceries in the car and ice cream melting. It takes me a grand total of 1 minute and 23 seconds in the voting booth, but I stand in line for an hour. If you add something really time intensive for voters to do, they won’t do it if they don’t have to.

Republicans are a little different. I will grant that they don’t want Lampson to win. But they would have to all agree on one candidate and all take the extra time in the booth to enter his name.

Interesting side note, according to Fort Bend Now, the SOS has said even a partial spelling would be read as voter intent, so even mispelling a candidate’s name won’t get thrown out. It probably isn’t up to him, though.