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August 24, 2009
Ballot Order Could Change. Would That Mean Anything?
Sadly, yes.
And here I had always assumed it was determined purely by the alphabet. Tom Humphrey:
With Republicans now in control of Tennessee's election apparatus, GOP candidates could be listed first on Tennessee ballots next year, a reversal from years of having Democratic candidates in the top position.Blake Fontenay, spokesman for Secretary of State Tre Hargett, said Friday that officials are researching how to make the change in "legally correct fashion." State law is silent on which party's candidates are listed first, he said.
Changing the order of ballot appearance seems like a gigantic waste of time. Furthermore, the process by which we the people elect our representative government should not be controlled by any one political party. Chip Forrester, current chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, can bitch all he wants about what the Republicans are doing to manipulate elections, but it's merely a case of the shoe being on the other foot. The Democrats did this kind of thing for years. No, that doesn't make it right for the GOP to do it now.
My second rant has to do with the idea that a candidate's name being listed first makes that candidate more likely to receive votes. Who votes like this? A ballot is not a survey, nor is it an achievement test. "Eeny meeny miney mo" does not cut it. If you haven't reviewed the whole ballot before an election, and made your choices, then don't vote. If you need help, that's what I'm here for.
Neither should you vote based on a candidate's label alone. Humphrey's hypothesis that we independent voters are more likely to pick the first name carries an ugly implication: that dedicated partisans are voting for the label only, and not for the candidate.
Yes, I know; it's all true. Parties will attempt to dominate the electoral process. Voters will show up uninformed at the polls. Ballot placement probably carries some slight advantage as a result. But this is all one big windmill at which I have no plans to stop tilting.
Note: Blake Fontenay stated the following in a comment at Humphrey's KnoxNews blog.
We have not reached any conclusions about ballot configuration - and your post implied that we have. We're simply researching the situation. Your article was incorrect…
Elections , Politics is Personal | By joe lance | 7:38 AM