Breaking

If no one else is, I am tired of the diatribes on air and in print against having a party symbol on the election ballot. The cries reached a crescendo in the 2014 election when errors in programming of the machines resulted in paper ballots being counted by hand in the general election. Considering that symbol voting has been in place for decades, I am puzzled and concerned that with every member and staff of the Board of Elections knowing this, no one — NO ONE — saw it fit to ensure that the machines were programmed accordingly in the first place. There is nothing illegal, wrong or disadvantageous to other candidates because of the presence of a party symbol.

First of all, ALL political parties are represented by a symbol, not just the Democrats. Therefore, all three political parties and any other that might be created and meets the required threshold are equitably treated on the ballots.

Secondly, if the slate of candidates for a particular party is not filled, the voter may complete the number of possible votes for the particular office with others not of the party.

Third, if one spoils a part of the ballot by voting the symbol when there is a full slate and then votes for a candidate for that office outside of the Party — and that should not happen with adequate education and if the machines are properly programmed — that ballot is or should be considered spoiled. The other sections for other offices, though, are not automatically spoiled.

But one has to wonder, why if the ballot is spoiled in any other manner, not including a symbol, the machine sends a message of a spoiled ballot and allows the voter to correct their mistake. Why was this not programmed to happen with a spoiled symbol vote? Instead the machine automatically deletes the votes under the party symbol, counts only the other vote/votes and accepts the ballot without giving the voter a chance to revote.

The correction for this in the General Election of 2014 was decided by the Board to be that we could only vote on paper and those ballots counted by hand, not by the machine.

Where the concern might more properly be placed is on the fact that paper ballots that should have been deemed spoiled were not, and tabulators were then reading each ballot and deciding what the voter’s intent was.

I believe that the law allows under certain circumstances for the Board to be able to determine what the intent of the voter is under certain circumstances, so what occurred may not have been illegal. However, it is my opinion that only the voter should make that determination and therefore the Legislature needs to revisit this provision and change it.

As I stated in my written comments to the Board of Elections in April, what also needs to happen is that the voting machines must be properly programmed, NOT that the symbol be eliminated as opponents of the Democratic Party so fervently advocate.

Any problems arising out of the 2014 election cannot and must not be blamed on the fact that there was symbol voting, but on a mistake made by the election system.

PARTY SYMBOLS DISADVANTAGE NO ONE and they make it easier for many who wish to use them to vote – whether they be Democrat, Republican or ICM. There is no valid reason to remove symbol voting in the next or any election.

NOTE: The Democratic Territorial Committee voted to uphold symbol voting in their meeting on 10/24/2015.

Submitted by:

Former Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen.

The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the staff and management of the VI Consortium.