It’s time to vote, and I think I’m going to be sick. The candidates for President are both terrible. I had hoped that Marco Rubio would have won the republican primary, but that was not to be, now we have a horse’s behind and a liar running. I don’t want either, can I write in Marco Rubio for president?
The answer in New York State is ‘no’. You can certainly write in his name, but the vote will not count for him, it would basically be like you didn’t vote. In New York to be a ‘write in’ candidate, a candidate must file with the New York State Board of elections their intent to be a ‘write in’ candidate. This must be accompanied by an application and a petition, with signature supporting your request.
The list of individuals who have requested permission to be a write in candidate can be found on line. Go to www.elections.ny.gov. On the right hand side is a list of topics, one of which is the list of approved write in candidates. Marco Rubio is not on this list.
If you vote for a specific acceptable write in candidate, then that individual will have your vote counted in their favor for allocation to the electoral college. Remember from our school days, it’s not each vote counts, it’s the majority of votes for a specific candidate tells the electoral college that all of New York votes a specific way, and all votes then go towards that candidate. If Clinton gets the majority of votes in New York, the whole state goes to the Clinton camp. Trump gets nothing.
Many individuals have said that in this day and age of electronic counting and voting, the electoral college should be done away with, and it should be one vote for each voter. So if one million vote for Clinton and 900,000 vote for Trump, the vote should be counted that way, not the entire state going to Clinton. Then the entire country could be added up to see who actually got the majority for the country, not just in each state. (Example if Clinton gets one million in New York, and 500,000 in PA, she would have 1.5 million, if Trump took 900,000 in New York, but a million in PA, he would have a total of 1.9 million, and take both NY and PA, not split with Clinton taking NY and Trump taking PA).
In the 2016 race many voters would like to vote for ‘none of the above’, but that will get us no where (which might be better than the current options). For your vote to count, you must vote for one of the names on the ballot (and there are more than Clinton and Trump, though the odds of them winning are slim….I think Ralph Nader should have tried this year), or one of the accepted write in candidates.
As always this is a general answer, to a general question. You should always consult your attorney about the specific issues that surround your specific needs.
If you have a question for Attorney Kukuvka, please forward it to: Cynthia M. Kukuvka, Attorney at Law, 330 E. Main St, Palmyra, NY 14522 or e-mail to cklaw@verizon.net