Category Archives: Write-in Votes

There’s not an app for that—yet

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Imagine this scenario: You go to a website, briefly register for an account, and up pops a form, like a ballot, that shows each office that you will vote on in the next election: statewide offices, plus your congressional district, your state Senate and House districts, and any ballot initiatives. (“Blue sky” version: also shows your local county and city/town districts, your polling place, and early voting locations, dates, and times.)

You are able to expand a particular office to view every candidate running for it, their party, website and social media links, news items, videos, issue positions, voting records, and campaign finance records. You can optionally answer a short survey about your own issue positions, and the candidates will be ranked according to how well their positions match yours.

Regardless, you are able to select a candidate that you like best, and save your choice to the applicable position on the mock-up ballot. The ballot is customized just for you: your districts, your chosen candidates. You can come back and change your mind at any time and save your changes.

When it’s election time, if you wish, you can download your completed ballot to your mobile device, or print it, and take it with you to the voting booth.

What would you give to have that? Would you give your brainstorming time, your design or coding skills, a little cash to entice those with said design or coding skills, or your moral support? More importantly, would you use it? Would you invite your friends, who probably pay less attention to elections than you, cherished reader of this site?

There is a working model that performs parts of the above, made by the good folks at Project Vote Smart. The Chicago Tribune put together something similar for the 2008 elections, and I’ve seen other similar efforts. I want more. It’s what I’ve wanted to do for five years, but now there’s better technology and more data sources. (Project Vote Smart has an API, for starters, but there’s more yet.)

I really want this for the 2012 elections, so there’s your dreaded arbitrary project end date.

If I get consensus from you that it’s a worthwhile endeavor, then let’s talk about next steps. You can leave comments below, or use the Contact form if you’d rather.

Thank you.

Write-in vote: Would you choose Carter or Coppinger for Hamilton County?

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Hopefully, dear Hamilton County readers, you were able to attend, watch reports about, read about, or read Twitter updates from tonight’s forum at Red Bank High School.

If so, your thoughts on which candidate should receive the mayoral appointment are most welcome. This is not a push-button poll; it’s a chance for you to explain your answer. And you should not only comment here, but you should contact your Hamilton County commissioner with your message.

Bonus question: Will the deadlock be broken, or will a third alternative have to come into play?

Double extra credit: Did having a public forum truly help?

Write-in vote: Is the new school board retirement plan audacious?

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The Hamilton County Board of Education on Tuesday voted to institute retirement pay for its members. The plan covers outgoing members Chester Bankston (who was elected to the Hamilton County Commission), Janice Boydston, and Kenny Smith.

Board members Everett Fairchild and Rhonda Thurman did not vote. UPDATE: Kevin West confirms that no board member voted against the proposal.

It’s your turn. What do you think?

Write-in vote: Should public university employees make political endorsements?

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Bruce Pearl, head basketball coach at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, has endorsed Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam for governor, and is currently on a statewide tour where the two are appearing jointly in get-out-the-vote rallies. (For any local readers interested, the pair will be in Chattanooga Tuesday afternoon, August 3rd, at the Doubletree Hotel downtown, at 5:00 p.m.)

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, who represents Tennessee’s Third Congressional District and is also seeking the gubernatorial post, says that Pearl should not be appearing on the campaign trail with Haslam, nor making endorsements in the race, in part because his salary is paid by all taxpayers, and because UTK is the flagship state university campus for all Tennesseans.

I’d like to hear your thoughts. Here are some questions to get things rolling. If Pearl had instead picked Wamp, would the latter have rejected the endorsement? For that matter, would Haslam be similarly calling foul?

How much is this related to the relative amount of “clout” that this particular university employee brings as a nationally recognized athletic leader, versus a member of the administration, faculty, or staff whom people would be, well, less interested in seeing?

A factor that is more specific to this situation is the Haslam family’s significant financial support of the university. Does that add complications?

You are invited to share your thoughts in the Comments.

Write-in vote: should election commissioners make campaign contributions?

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Tom Humphrey reported Monday that the normally routine bill that extends the existence of the Tennessee Election Commission has hit a snag:

Legislation to continue the existence of the State Election Commission was shelved by the House on Monday night after an argument broke out over an amendment to the measure. The amendment, which had been adopted in the Government Operations Committee, would prohibit members of the Election Commission from making donations to state and local political candidates.

The amendment itself was approved on a narrow 51-42 vote after being revised so that the prohibition would apply only to election commissioners chosen in the future – not those holding office now. Six of the seven current state election commissioners have made contributions to candidates – mostly state legislators.

This is an interesting problem. On one hand, I see House Democratic Leader Gary Odom’s point. He called the commissioners “referees” and pointed out that they oversee disputes among candidates. Having them contribute to campaigns is sort of like having basketball referees gambling on games that they then adjudicate. (FT: J.R. Lind)

On the other hand, commissioners are not robots. They are citizens with the same rights to participate in the electoral process as anyone else, right? Furthermore, as Rep. Joey Hensley pointed out, the Election Commission comprises one camp each of firmly ensconced Democrats and Republicans. (So maybe it’s like having coaching staff members from the two teams referee the game, then.) Presumably—hopefully—these men and women vote. Is voting with their dollars extremely different?

In a recent, highly publicized criminal trial, the judge was asked by the defense to recuse himself because he had, as an attorney, represented the defendant’s ex-spouse in divorce proceedings. The judge denied the defense’s motion and presided over the trial.

Technically, nothing was wrong with that decision, as far as I can tell. But our human interactions are so often colored by perception that I feel it would have been wise for the judge to step away; and I wonder the same thing about election commissioners (state and local) when it comes to campaign contributions.

I am not firmly in either camp, however. I’m putting the issue out here for discussion. Laws should be enacted to protect our rights, not to restrict them. It follows, then, that we should not prohibit these contributions. But it could be argued that the rights of candidates and, by extension, of the voters themselves, are impacted by the possibility of bias. After all, if one feels strongly enough to financially support a candidate, one may not be inclined to give that candidate’s opponent the fairest treatment.

Or at least it could be perceived that way.

What do you think?