O for fuck’s sake.
Sheesh. What next? “Well, your honor, I heard from this guy down at the bait store that his buddy Sherman would have shown up to vote, only he had car trouble. And he always votes for the taller candidate.”
Not that the Democrat should automatically win, but this seems like a fairly absurd standard.
“By state law, the winner of the tie will be determined ‘by lot.’ It was not immediately clear how or when that will take place.”
GOP: “A fair test – if she sinks, she wins; if she floats, she loses!”
A key tenet of today’s Republican party. When you can’t win, cheat.
So who’s this Lot guy?
Nice guy, his wife got into some trouble a while ago, just goes to show what happens when you vote Democrat…
“Something Something, Pillar of Salt…”
So . . . the little known “Republicans win all spoiled ballots” rule?
Is there an appeal? Because the worst that the Democrats could do is for the race to be tied. If the ballot in question is thrown out (I’m not an expert in election law, but I think that’s what’s done when a ballot is “defaced,” or marked up so the voter’s intention is not clear), then Simonds wins.
From WaPo:
In the case of a tie in a House race, state law says the winner is chosen by lot – essentially, a coin toss.
Seriously TPM (and the rest of the fucking “news”): do not ever fail to name the judges or who appointed them or which district elected them. Just don’t.
We knew it wouldn’t last … not when you’re dealing with Republicans
Exactly. A spoiled ballot is a spoiled ballot for fuck’s sake.
You cannot determine voter intent if two bubbles are marked when the instructions say vote for one.
ETA: the link @chelsea530 provides shows the ballot. That’s clearly a spoiled ballot – the Governor’s race also has extraneous marks on the single bubble filled in by the idiot voter. There is no second bubble filled in in that race, but are we to interpret the mark as meaning it should be an undervote?
Beyond that, the instructions at polling places are clear. If you spoil a ballot, you can get a new one by going to the precinct workers and asking for a clean ballot.
I think the Democrats should appeal this.
“I’ve got a friend named Jim. He said he was going to vote, but there was a huge line of Mexicans.”
That sucks.
So, this means that there is currently a 50/50 chance of having a 50/50 split in the Virginia state House? Okay.
That description of the ballot being marked up and unclear sure sounds like a hanging chad to me!
It’s not the worst outcome by any means and if the repuglic does get the seat it won’t make any more friends in Va for the GOP.
It’s just demoralizing when this shit constantly happens with our elections and the goddamn Repuglics.
[quote=“stradivarius50t3, post:13, topic:66565”]
ETA: the link @chelsea530 provides shows the ballot. That’s clearly a spoiled ballot – the Governor’s race also has extraneous marks on the single bubble filled in by the idiot voter
[/quote]It looks to me like the voter started off his/her ballot by marking an “X” in the bubbles, and then realized the mistake and colored them in. He/She completed the “X” for governor, and started it for Simonds in the House of Delegates box. There’s just as good of an argument to say he/she meant to vote for Simonds by starting to mark “X” before filling in the bubble as there is to say he/she tried to cancel her bubble out by putting a slash through it after filling in the bubble.
Appeal this bullshit. It was a spoiled ballot and should be thrown out…not interpreted through guesswork or even some kind of “logic.”
ETA: I had referred to the voter as “he” throughout my post. So as not to be sexist (and offend Susan Collins) I have now indicated “he/she” in order to give a possible woman voter the same consideration for having been a fucking idiot in the way the ballot was filled out and turned in.
Funny how sometimes a ballot isn’t considered spoiled.