S. Worthen | Weblog

A snippet of the Polk County, Iowa absentee ballot for tomorrow's election

One of the things I love most about ballots back home is that, for all offices being elected on that ballot, we can provide a write-in candidate if we prefer. This tends to only make much of a difference in local elections, or in the case of a major national candidate who, for whatever reason, failed to meet the criteria or deadlines for appearing in print on the ballot in the first place.

C. says that UK ballots don't allow write-in candidates. He quite reasonably argues that this means that only candidates who actually want the job will be elected for the position in question.

Personally, I love the willful independence that having a write-in space for each office allows.