Sharkey County, MS?

[homelycooking]

This is very strange.

Sharkey County, Mississippi Vote for President, 2004

Kerry/Edwards, Democratic, 1560 (50.4%)
Bush/Cheney, Republican, 1120 (36.2%)
Cobb/LaMarche, Green, 145 (4.7%)
Calero/Trowe, Socialist Workers, 94 (3.0%) (That's 27 votes less than Calero's haul in the Bronx!)

Sharkey County is majority Black, located between Jackson and Greenville. Green Party candidate Nader got 0.6% there in 2000, SWP candidate James Harris got 0.4%. In 2008, Nader got four votes (0.1%) and McKinney (Green) got one vote

Can anyone explain why the Green percentage of the vote for 2004 here is over four times higher than in any other county in the United States, or why one in 13 votes for Calero/Trowe in Mississippi were cast in Sharkey County when that county is home to one in 447 Mississippi voters?

[homelycooking]

That data can't be right. So how does one find out what the actual results were? Both CNN and the Election Atlas show these numbers.

[homelycooking]

Gasp, the results are RIGHT? How can that be?! How does the Green party vote go from 16 in 2000 to 145 in 2004, then 1 in 2008?

[homelycooking]

I'm trying to think of explanations for this:

1. A bunch (300 or so) of voters got together and decided to vote for third-party candidates?
2. Poor ballot design (à la Theresa LePore in Palm Beach County) caused people to unwittingly vote for third parties?
3. Bad voting machines?
4. Election officials knowingly signed off on bogus results?
5. Black Democrats' disillusionment with Kerry? (@ Rochambeau: Sounds plausible, but why did this only happen in Sharkey County?)

[homelycooking]

OK, it's poor ballot design. Cobb and Calero are on the top of the ballot.

http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/2004/2004SampleBallot.pdf

This one ranks up there with the Butterfly and Catterpillar ballots in the annals of Poor Ballot Design!

Thanks to RBH, who posted this years ago. Sorry for wasting your time, the original topic is on page 3 of this forum.

[homelycooking]

On the contrary, my Krazy Konservative friend, I'm telling you that Democrats and Republicans vote for the candidate that they think is the Democrat or Republican, even if it's a nutter Socialist, based on the design of the ballot.

[homelycooking]

There's a place in North Dakota in 2008 where they messed up one precinct (counting the D and R tallies for two minor candidates instead);

I remember this. That was Grant County, right?
Any more conspicuous examples of bad ballot design besides:

Butterfly Ballot, Palm Beach County '00
Caterpillar Ballot, Duval County '00
"Christmas for Commies" Ballot, Sharkey County '04
"Either-Or" Ballot, Sarasota County '06
Double-Bubble Ballot, Los Angeles County '08?