Maine had a law, until 2009, that said the voter was supposed to write-in not only the name of the candidate, but the town he or she lived in. The 2009 session of the legislature repealed it because that law seemed to do a great deal of harm to ordinary write-in candidates.
Probably Joe Miller would have needed to use a middle initial or a middle name in his campaign to get write-in votes that would be credited to him and not another write-in candidate with an almost identical name.
The problem of two candidates with the same name is not unique to write-in voting. Oklahoma had a person named Will Rogers, who was not the famous Will Rogers, and had no political experience or special qualifications, but he still got elected to Congress in 1932 on the strength of his name.
--- On Wed, 11/17/10, Goldfeder, Jerry H.
<jgoldfeder@stroock.com> wrote:
From: Goldfeder, Jerry H. <jgoldfeder@stroock.com>
Subject: [EL] Write-in votes
To: "Election Law" <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>
Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010, 6:50 AM
It is probably true that there are not two Lisa Murkowski’s in Alaska, but if a write-in campaign was waged for a Joe Miller, for example, how would election personnel determine
which Joe Miller should receive the vote? Or Al Green? Or Betty White? You get the idea.
If you have any experience with, or are aware of any statutes or articles on the subject of how to determine which write-in candidate gets the vote, please contact me off line. Thanks.
Jerry H. Goldfeder
Special Counsel
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
180 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038
212-806-5857 (office)
917-680-3132 (cell)
212-806-7857 (fax)
www.stroock.com/goldfeder
IRS Circular 230
Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS in Circular 230, we inform you that any tax
advice contained in this communication (including any attachment that does not explicitly state otherwise) is not
intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal
Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.
-----Inline Attachment Follows-----
|