San Diego Tribune Editorial: The wrong choice

[question everything]

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
The wrong choice

Ban on write-ins would limit democracy

February 20, 2005

Why is it that whenever the San Diego City Council comes to a fork in the road, it so often seems to go the wrong way?

The latest dart down the wrong road came Wednesday when the council's Rules Committee voted 4-0 to ban write-in candidates from municipal general elections. Councilman Scott Peters was absent for that vote, but two weeks earlier he voted along with the others in directing the city attorney's office to prepare the ordinance that was approved Wednesday.

(snip)

This ordinance is a spinoff of last year's mayoral election. The race began as a drab rerun of 2000, with Murphy and county Supervisor Ron Roberts again squaring off. But the rematch turned into farce when, on Sept. 30, shortly before the legal deadline and less than five weeks before election day, Councilwoman Donna Frye jumped into the race as a write-in candidate.

For those who may have been in hibernation the past five months, let's just say the gentle councilwoman shook things up a bit. Taking advantage of growing public anger over the City Hall pension fund crisis, as well as her own considerable populist appeal, Frye nearly pulled it off. In fact, she would have won but for the failure of 5,551 voters to fill in the oval bubble after writing in Frye's name. After the inevitable half-dozen or so court challenges, Murphy was declared the winner by 2,108 votes.

(snip)

In choosing to ban write-ins, the committee reflected legitimate concerns that such last-minute guerrilla campaigns like Frye's are grossly unfair – to the other candidates who were required to slug it out in the primary, and to voters.

(snip)


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050220/news_lz1ed20bottom.html

[toymachines]

1. is frye out of it for good? fuck murphey and the council members

write ins are a very important aspect of any election. i dont get it, whats even the point of putting that option on the ballot? god i am so pissed. san diego really shouldnt just take this. are there any protests or things of that sort planned for this cause?

[Liberty Belle]

2. An appeal on Frye's behalf was filed today.

This editorial is ridiculous. It suggests various ways to keep write-in candidates off the ballot, but never once recognizes that an election in which a write-in candidate beats two well-known (but corrupt) public officials and WINS is actually the purest form of democracy-- not a "disruption."