Ballot Order Helps Incumbents
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 17 August 2010 — Comments Off
Call it the luck of the draw. The random alphabetic order for this year’s election (determined by the Secretary of State) starts with: R, T, Y, C, W, O.
In Hercules, the random alphabet results in the following ballot order for City Council candidates:
- Kris Valstad, incumbent
- Joe Eddy McDonald, incumbent
- Myrna de Vera
- John Delgado
In a typical mid-term election, when the general voting public does not recognize the names of the councilmembers (let alone their faces or policies), the incumbents have an advantage — unless the voter is presented with evidence otherwise, say, a slew of Contra Costa Times articles highlighting mismanagement and possibly downright fraud and negligence, they will generally vote incumbent. The fact that the incumbents are listed first and second is yet another advantage for the typical, arguably underinformed voter — making it easier as the voter slogs his/her way through the endless California ballot (i.e., initiative upon initiative).
A silver lining for the challengers is the oft-reported and so-called anti-incumbent sentiment among the voting public this year. However, whether or not the sentiment resonates and filters down to the local level, including in Hercules, is anyone’s guess and is likely not a campaigning tool worth relying on.