Stategerie for Activists - Use the "Write In Feature" to Make Point

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

I am re-posting this by popular demand, have added a few thoughts:

PA Voters' Dirty Write-In Votes & Strategerie for Activists
by NC Voter

Strategerie for activism takes creativity.

I was inspired, yes inspired by a news article about voters in Pennsylvania using the new touchscreen features to write in dirty curse words. First this made me laugh, some of the words were so nasty, and then it gave me an idea - "Why not use the write in feature to "vote" for paper ballots?" Clearly voters needed a way to go on record about this, since the media and public officials seemed to ignore them. So - here is what we can do...

Background - some folks in Pennsylvania had chosen to abuse the "write in" feature on their fancy new paperless Touchscreen/DRE voting machines:

The Pennsylvania Times-Leader A new meaning to dirty politics Some people casting write-in votes chose profane language instead of candidates. The nifty write-in feature on the new electronic voting machines attracted something different in Tuesday's election: profanity. "I'm disturbed by some of the swear words," said Luzerne County Election Bureau Director Leonard Piazza...

Voters watching too much MTV, apparently: Instead of the usual write in votes for "Mickey Mouse", or "Cinderella", today's voter is instead leveraging the technology of the new voting machines to write in highly embarrassing and downright shocking profanity. Election officials are not happy with what they are seeing:

"That's disgusting. If that's the kind of word you're going to type into these machines, then you ought not to be bothering to vote because that's an insult to the voting process," Piazza said.,
This is all quite funny unless you are an election official.
"What's unfortunate is we still have to report those words as write-in votes," Piazza said of the profanity.

Wait a minute! They have to report what is written in on the computers???!!

Well, then, let's not waste this opportunity on juvenile behavior and offensive language. Put the "write in" feature to good use.

Recommendation - use the write in feature in uncontested races.
coordinate with local groups to unify your "strategerie"

Why not write in your "vote" for one of these candidates (especially in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida or anywhere that the lawmakers and election officials refuse to listen to the voters): voterverified paperballots,
noproof notruth,
HR 550,
no vaporballots, or
even paper ballots.

If enough people write in the same thing, for the same contest,
your candidate, "No Vaporballots" might win.

Regardless, your write-in vote will be counted, and then the media can report something that actually IS newsworthy - that the voters do not want paperless voting.
Count those write ins if you don't believe us!
If "voterverified paperballots" got 2,000 votes in a small contest,
it might win!

http://www.dailykos.com/admin/story/2006/5/20/11939/3847

[emlev]

1. Let's do it! A write-in can force your ballot to be counted by hand!

When the polls close in my California county, pollworkers such as myself sort through the ballots, separating out any with write-ins, because those cannot be counted by the tabulators and must be counted by hand, as I understand it. Since the tabulators are at least as hackable as the DREs, this is quite important. (In my pollworker training it was not made clear if the whole ballot will be counted by hand, or only the write-in vote, with the ballot then going into the tabulator to have the rest of the races counted.)

I like "Voterverified Paperballots," but I think people may forget the word "verified" if VVPB is not in their daily vocabulary. I prefer "Count Paperballots," also because it sounds sort of regal.

That's who I'll be voting for in every uncontested race in the CA primary on Tuesday. Will you join me?

[Ian David]

2. I usually just write-in "Ficus," but this idea is better.

You know what would also be fun (but not as useful) would be if a whole bunch of people wrote-in the name of the little old lady supervising the polling place.

"Excuse me, Miss Brentner? Can I see you for a moment? Why did sixty people at the polling station you were supervising choose you as a write-in candidate for Board of Education?"

[yellowcanine]

3. That idea is pure genius.

[yellowcanine]

4. In situations where your vote "doesn't matter" this seems like an

excellent strategy for registering your opinion. However, I suspect the only people who will see your efforts are the poll workers.

[emlev]

5. Here's what my county election office just said:

That if you register as a certified write-in candidate (deadline is two weeks before the election), your votes will be tallied. If not, they won't. I'm guessing that means they'll be counted as "write in" but not as the "name" that was written in.

I don't know if this is the same everywhere. Nothing else is, so it's likely there are local or statewide variations.

I must say this takes some of the steam out of this idea for me in my CA county. What do others think?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. 06/07 update - write in - Yolo County Election Results Delayed

Write-ins gone wild - why didn't you guys pick a more strategic write in
candidate?? Like "audits" or "paper ballots" for example..
Oh well......

Wed Jun 7, 11:38 AM ET

Elections officials in Yolo County ran into major problems
Tuesday with a large number of write-in ballots and did not finish
counting until early Wednesday.

"People just went wild," said Freddie Oakley, Yolo County clerk recorder.
"People were writing in Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.
We always see a couple of those in every election, but we saw thousands of them."

Workers did not wrap up their work until about 4 a.m. http://news.yahoo.com/s/kcra/20060607/lo_kcra/9332767