Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Voting No Confidence

Added several days later.  This report on an innovative voting method:
https://electology.org/blog/fargo-nd-makes-history-first-us-city-implement-approval-voting

I voted.  I skipped voting for any candidate that was running unopposed. There was a write in opportunity but meaningless except for being offered as an opportunity.  I talked to a few people about that.  Most skipped the unopposed.

A non-paritison Deschutes County candidate was on the primary ballot unopposed but not on the Nov. ballot.  I wanted to talk to Nancy about that but talked with one of her assistants.  He did not have an answer.  Going to ORS I found that there is some latitude at the local level that possibly may determine that a non-partisan unopposed in the primary does not have to run in the general election.  Makes sense, maybe.  I thought about that.

I have been analyzing the records of that candidate and discovering things of concern.  If they were publicly known then perhaps they would influence an expression of public sentiment that could be expressed by either write in or social media influence encouraging a future contender to apply for election to the position.  Both are not likely.

Here is an idea.

Unopposed candidates get few votes.  That makes the leverage of a few  write ins greater.  Any name can be entered as a write in.

What if instead of. name the phrase "no confidence" was written in as if it was a person.  I expect that write in would be tallied and above a certain level would be publicly reported.  It is an obvious vote against a candidate that has no opposition.  Maybe voters just don't like the position, like dog catcher, and vote against the position.  Some might not like the way the incumbent is doing the job.

What would it mean?  Maybe just. memo for the record vote but it does say something.  Perhaps it might encourage a future contender.  Maybe it would induce the unopposed candidate to. ??? in response to this feedback vote?

I think the opportunity in the case of an unopposed position should at least be there to enter "no confidence" and have it tallied by the County Clerk.

What if the "no confidence" votes were greater than the votes for the candidate?  That is a meaningful  expression outcome of the vote.

What do you think?

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