Was my vote for Busby not counted yesterday? Funky results yesterday...

I voted for Busby and a full progressive slate for Fernald, etc. too here.

I ALSO voted write-ins of "Paper ballots only" both against Bonnie Dumanis and Dan McCallister here too.

However, you go to this page and it shows that Bonnie Dumanis and Dan McCallister got 100% of the vote! Huh? Don't they count those write-in votes? Did they throw out my scanned vote card because of my write-ins? I wonder if we can get an explanation why write-ins weren't included here!

http://www.sdvote.org/election/superior.xml

I suspect it all depends on how many votes there were in total, and how many write in's there were in comparisson. ie: If there were 100,000 votes and 5 write in's, I doubt the results would be published as 99.995%. Results are probably rounded for clarity.

Do they put it for Bonnie Dumanis? If they were to say something like:

BONNIE DUMANIS 284120 99.99%
WRITE-IN 5 0.01%

or

BONNIE DUMANIS 284120 100.00%
WRITE-IN 5 0.00%

Then I'd accept the rounding explanation. But how many people did write-ins? I can't believe I was the only one, and even if I was the only one, I'd like to see my votes in these two races counted!

office. Call them. See what they have to say.

I guess you have to be registered as a write-in candidate to receive counted write-in votes. Kind of defeats the purpose of write-ins if you ask me. I still think that it would be good if they listed the number of write-in votes in each case so that the public could get an idea the full amount of people that chose to write-in someone else, regardless of who it was. Of course if they are registered write-ins (as they would later see as a means to "qualify" them ) later on they could break it down to how many votes each "legitimate" write-in source got and the rest of the "non-legitimate" write-in votes showing up as generic "Other Write-in votes:". I think that would give the public a more accurate picture of the support for a given candidate than we have now with these races. Perhaps in some races where some candidates are shown with a 50%+ majority of votes in fact they really might be a plurality instead of a majority if the write-ins were added to the mix, which would eliminate that often used "mandate" mantra that some candidates have. I guess the same could be said for showing unchecked circle counts too. Oh well...

- Mike

From Barbara.Walther@sdcounty.ca.gov Wed Jun 07 22:22:57 2006
Subject: RE: How come write-in vote totals aren't shown in the vote totals here.
Were they counted?
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 15:22:53 -0700
From: "CSG, ROVMAIL" <ROVMAIL.ROV@sdcounty.ca.gov>
To: ( me )

Hi ( me ),

To be a qualified write-in candidate a person had to file papers with our office between April 10 and May 23. In San Diego County there were only 3 qualified write-in candidates, Paul Martens, an Independent in the Special Run-off election for the 50th Congressional District, Barbara H. Mead, a Democrat for the 38th Sate Senate and Judith E. Jones, a Democrat for the 73rd Assembly District. If you wrote in any other names they were not counted. The write-in vote counts will be part of the official certified results. By law we have until July 4 to certify the election, but we hope to be done by June 30. Let me know if I can help you with anything else.

Sincerely,

Barbara Walther
Registrar of Voters
858-694-3405

-----Original Message-----
From: (me)
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 11:48 AM
To: CSG, ROVMAIL
Subject: How come write-in vote totals aren't shown in the vote totals
here. Were they counted?



I see many unopposed candidates with "100% of the vote" and raw vote totals for them. But where do those who put write-in votes in those races fall in those totals. Are they counted in that 100% incorrectly or are they just "left off"? I think the public is owed a line that says something like

"Write-ins <total write-in votes> <percentage of write-ins>"

as a line in each of the races. Not doing so makes many like myself who voted write-in votes wonder if all of our votes were thrown out because we had write-ins on our ballot.

Please explain the policy if you would and how they are factored in.

Thanks,

(me)