Is voting a right for US citizens? No – it’s not. The idea of “one man, one vote” is a common fallacy. In the US Constitution that refers to the votes by members of Congress, but it has nothing to do with the public vote.

In Delaware it’s no different. Felons who are in jail can’t vote and those who have been released have to first meet a series of requirements.

• The sentence and fines must be satisfied at least 5 years prior to the application date.
• A Felony conviction of the following disqualifies one of the bill’s requirements: murder, sexual crimes, or crimes against the public.

But now Delaware has taken your vote to a new level – or lack of one – if you write-in your vote for a candidate. Senate Bill 164 was signed into law by Governor Ruth Ann Minner on July 9. The bill’s synopsis –

This bill would require that only votes cast for a declared write-in candidate would be counted. A person could declare himself/herself a write-in candidate to the Commissioner of Elections or the appropriate Department of Elections and that write-in votes cast for any other person, etc. would be lumped together and reported as other write-in votes. Persons who declare themselves write-in candidates would be subject to the provisions of Chapter 80 (Campaign Finance). The bill also provides additional guidance on what constitutes a vote for a write-in candidate.

The bill passed in the state Senate by an 11-9-1 vote – only 1 Sussex County senator voted against it – Senator Robert Venables of Laurel. In the state House – it was passed unanimously.

This bill would have never allowed Dr. John Adams to be elected as Mayor of Lewes.

While many people consider a vote for any candidate other than the Democrat or Republican who is running a wasted vote – that’s not to point! You have exercised your ability to vote by voting for the candidate you feel most strongly about – whether it be Barack Obama, John McCain or your next door neighbor, and you want that vote to count. Likely your neighbor won’t win the election – but your vote also says that you had no faith in the other candidates running.

Sure you can still write-in yourself, Pat Paulson, Snoopy or Dan Gaffney as your candidate of choice – but unless they are a declared write-in candidate – your vote WILL NOT COUNT! At least before this bill was enacted – your vote counted towards a “candidate” – now the vote will count – but lumped in with the other undeclared write-in candidates.

So what happens in the event that there’s an overwhelming response for undeclared write-in candidates that comes close to or bests the vote for the Dem or GOP declared candidate?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Delaware, Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.