[heleny]

October 7, 2003 Statewide Special Election Results of Randomized Alphabet Drawing

The results of the Secretary of State's random drawing of letters of the alphabet for the October 7, 2003 Statewide Special Election are listed below. The resulting order of letters constitutes the alphabet to be used for determining the order of candidates' names on the upcoming statewide ballot; it applies throughout the name, not just for the first letter so that Randolph would precede Riddle.

Names of candidates for offices voted on statewide rotate by Assembly district, starting with Assembly District 1 where the names appear as first determined by the random alphabet. In Assembly District 2, the candidate who appeared first in Assembly District 1 drops to the bottom and the other candidates move up one position and so on throughout the 80 districts.

This procedure was established by legislation passed in 1975 in response to court rulings declaring that standard alphabetical order or incumbent-first was unconstitutional since there is a 5% positional bias among undecided voters.

1. R
2. W
3. Q
4. O
5. J
6. M
7. V
8. A
9. H
10. B
11. S
12. G
13. Z
14. X
15. N
16. T
17. C
18. I
19. E
20. K
21. U
22. P
23. D
24. Y
25. F
26. L

[Lazamataz]

Lazamataz would be last.

Figures. Glad I didn't enter the race.

[sgtbono2002]

Arrianna may be a high profile Candidate but she is still a low life gold digger.

[finnman69]

Is it just me, or does this make it especially difficult to locate a candidate this way.

[Rabid Dog]

I'm sorry, but is there anyway they could have made the process even more difficult? What is wrong with alphabetizing? The logic path is scary and I am sure pervasive throughout the state government. Do things the hard, painful and convoluted way at every possible opportunity.

[Revolting cat!]

Woo hoo! Revolting cat! would be furst! Is it to late to join the fun?

Just imagine:

Guvnor Revolting cat!

[Political Junkie Too]

22, 21, 20, 19, spells P-U-K-E.

-PJ

[Saundra Duffy]

Glad I'm not on the ballot! LOL!!!

[duckman]

I smell another Floriduh on the horizon.

[novacation]

Jim Robinson is mad as hell he didn't run now.

[Diddle E. Squat]

How incredibly stupid. What a great way to guarantee confusion, voter complaints, slowing the process, and long lines at closing time. The same randomization could have been accomplished while avoiding the downside by simply doing a random drawing to determine which letter would be at the top, do such random drawing for each district, and then alphabetize the list behind that chosen letter. Thus whatever letter is at the top is different for each district, and determined by random luck, yet voters can easily find their candidate by then tracing down through the alphabet on their ballot.

For example, if the district #15 drawing made 'L' the first letter, then the order would be L, M, N, O, P....K. If district #37's drawing had 'F' as the first letter, then the order would be F, G, H, I....E.

Anybody believe the Dems are going to take advantage of this by trotting out Florida-style 98 year old nitwits whining about how they collapsed before they found their candidate in a completely random order 195 list? The average time in the booth is probably going to triple, in a likely high turnout election. Watch for some of the Dem-staffed poll locations to have so many poll workers call in sick that they are unable to open, it will certainly take place in a minority neighborhood, and the lawsuits will commence. And with the huge lines at closing time, watch for certain Dem poll locations to somehow just coincidently be unable to prevent persons arriving long after the poll closing times from sneaking into line because "the lines are so long it was impossible". If anybody but Bustamante wins, they'll need to get at least 2% more votes than him.

But this overdone randomization nonsense can't be blamed as a current Dem trick.

[CarmelValleyite]

Dang -- Gary Coleman's gonna be pretty far down on the list ;)