Oct 15 2008
Ballot
(click for bigger version)
After yesterday’s Canadian elections (aiaiai, the Conservatives won a lot of seats) it is now time to pay our full attention to the presidential elections of the United States. The elections are three weeks away and Alison has already received her absentee ballot. Last time (4 years ago) she received her ballot 9 months too late. It had been “mistakenly” sent to St. Thomas, one of the US Virgin Islands and it took a very long while to finally reach us. And it didn’t even arrive in a bottle.
Anyway, Alison is a dual US-Canadian citizen and it’s time to vote. Just as with the Canadian election, her vote doesn’t really matter. I don’t think McCain has much chance winning in the state of New York, but if they’ll ever use the popular vote for statistics it might show up. If they actually open those absentee ballot envelopes. I heard they are only opened and counted if the outcome is too close to call.
Alison always lets me vote since I’m more au courant of the political news than she is. [Okay, that’s not true, and she wasn’t happy with it. See her comment below.] Not that the choice at hand is particularly difficult this time around.
But filling out the ballot actually is difficult. So maybe my American readers can help me. Let me explain. I’d have expected to find entries for the candidates of the parties on the ballot: Obama for the Democrats, McCain for the Republicans and maybe one or two others that are running as independents. But instead there are 10 choices for president and vice-president. (click on the picture above to read the entries)
McCain & Palin have three entries and Obama & Biden two, and then there are no less than 5 independent candidates, four I’ve never heard of and Ralph Nader.
But why does McCain/Palin have three boxes? So their chances would triple? To confuse the uneducated or first-time voter? I’m well educated and I do find it highly confusing.
Of course I’m going to vote for that one, but which box on the ballot should I check?
Should I choose: Democratic Electors for Obama/Biden or Working Families for Obama/Biden?
What is the difference? Will it affect the outcome of the election?
If you have the answer, please let me know in the comments. Thank you.
Wednesday, 15 October, 2008 @ 14:29
Ahem. I know quite enough about Canadian and American politics to vote for my MP or President. Thank you. But yes, I ask you to choose the candidate because I want you to participate. Once you have citizenship I won’t be asking you to choose my candidate for me: you can choose your own.
Sunday, 19 October, 2008 @ 14:31
It could be so much simpler:
https://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/2008/10/the-2008-presid.html
Finn.
Monday, 20 October, 2008 @ 14:58
No wonder it’s always such a big problem to count te votes in the US.
(Graphic design rules!!!)
Tuesday, 4 November, 2008 @ 13:10
Looks like a misprint of the ballot to me. There were a lot more Presidential candidates than I knew about and I suspect someone copied and pasted the names and forgot to edit them.
Thursday, 6 November, 2008 @ 10:59
A friend on a mailing list hinted me to the answer:
I looked up the Working Families Party website and found that it’s called fusion voting in New York.
If I had known I might have marked that box on the ballot, but better late than never. Maybe for the next election, hopefully in 4 years.