NY Times: Count Every Vote
On top of today’s NY Times Editorial Page is a piece entitled Count Every Vote. Here is an excerpt:
In San Diego, the No. 2 choice of the voters for the mayor’s job may be headed to City Hall. Donna Frye, a write-in candidate, came within 2,108 votes of defeating Mayor Dick Murphy. But Ms. Frye’s vote total does not include more than 5,500 ballots on which voters wrote her name, but failed to darken a bubble next to it. There can be no doubt that those voters, who would easily give Ms. Frye a majority, tried to vote for her, but were tripped up by poor ballot design. The voters’ intent should be recognized.
We wrote about the vote dispute a few days ago and Jeffrey Agnew of Left Coast Law has posted his opinion.
The New York Times has a forum to discuss editorials, but so far nothing has been written about the San Diego mayoral contest.
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jkrank said on Tuesday, December 21, 2004, 5:12
sounds terribly sad, follow the law or choose the winner based on likelyhood. I think the law should win out, and Frye should run again.
Strange that the NYT blames ‘poor ballot design,’ though. I mean, was the bubble on the other side, on a different scrap of paper, and was laminated to assure no graphite would hold its mark on the paper? A bubble and name seems pretty sound for ballot design. As long as the other candidates didn’t get away with some different standard than that, either.