Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!uhnix1!sugar!ficc!jeffd From: jeffd@ficc.uu.net (jeff daiell) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Re: Proposal for changes to the newsgroup creation guidlines. Summary: Candidate order Message-ID: <6617@ficc.uu.net> Date: 20 Oct 89 18:33:46 GMT References: <14718.2538b6f4@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <6610@ficc.uu.net> Distribution: na Organization: Ferranti International Controls Lines: 67 In article <6610@ficc.uu.net>, peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: > > > Finally, the donkey vote is a problem with all voting systems. In Australia, > the order of candidates is chosen by lot. I believe a similar system is > used in the U.S. > In some instances - for instance, Houston city elections (which are nonpartisan). In many States of our Union, tho, each party is assigned a line on the ballot in the same order in which they finished in the last gubernatorial voting. Thus, Texas would be, in 1990, Republican Democratic Libertarian whereas New York might be Democratic Republican Conservative Right to Life Liberal Libertarian Socialist Socialist Workers Populist Socialist Labor American New Alliance Consitution or however they placed in the last go-round. I'm not sure how referenda are ordered, but often it's up to the elections authorities. For instance, California authorities deliberately assigned the Jarvis-Gann tax relief measure the number 13 in 1978, hoping superstition would doom the proposal. It passed, thus temporarily ending the shocking rate of 7,000 homes *a month* being lost due to owner inability to pay property taxes. If order on the ballot is going to be a major factor in these various proposals for Usenet referenda, it might be a good idea to decide upon a formula before the first vote is taken, thus eliminating yet another source of controversy. Jeff Daiell PS - If you don't think ballot order is important in public elections ... in 1982, the Harris County (Houston, Texas) School Board *canceled* an election because a Libertarian had gotten first place on the ballot in one of the two Board races slated for that year. Winning that seat would have given LPers a majority, and the Board's bureaucracy couldn't handle the thought of losing their gravy train (they spent millions per year despite having no schools!) -- My vocabulary can beat up your vocabulary.