Department of Federal Elections: Homelycooking, SoFE

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Cry babies!

You heard the SoFE.

Now just deal with it!

Who are you, his sidekick?

[Marokai Backbeat]

Sheesh, when I get involved, people get upset with me, if I don't get involved, people get upset with me...

[Northeast Rep Snowball]

Hey, Scott managed to translate this.

2] Eruenyalo-raukonore

[1]úquétima

[homelycooking]

Hey, Scott managed to translate this.

2] Eruenyalo-raukonore

[1]úquétima

What?

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Hey, Scott managed to translate this.

2] Eruenyalo-raukonore

[1]úquétima

Sorry, I should have said this in my office thread and referred to it in my vote count: that vote was not counted.  It is illegal under the Official Language Act.

[homelycooking]

REPUBLIC OF ATLASIA - In Dave We Trust
Preliminary Ballot

This election is held in accordance with Article V of the Constitution and with the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act.  The regular election begins at 23:59 EDT, Thursday, March 21, and ends at 23:59 EDT, Sunday, March 24.

DO NOT EDIT OR DELETE THE POST CONTAINING YOUR BALLOT IN ANY WAY AFTER 20 MINUTES OF ITS BEING POSTED OR YOUR VOTE WILL BE INVALIDATED

The act of campaigning within the election booth is strictly forbidden and will render void any votes made by those who campaign. The act of campaigning is considered to include, but is not limited to, strong attempts to compel others either to vote or not to vote for one or multiple candidates, or other related activities that could reasonably be construed as a direct attempt to influence how future voters cast their ballots. In other words, this is not a discussion thread. In short, the department will be taking a liberal interpreation of this, so Keep posts to votes only.

Place the numbers 1, 2, etc. in the space provided beside the candidates who you wish to vote for to designate your order of preference for these candidates.  If any other mark or attempt to order the candidates is made, the Department of Forum Affairs will make every effort to deduce voter intent from the content of the ballot, but the warning must be issued that failure to follow the above instructions may result in the invalidation of your ballot in the event of an inability to discern voter intent.  You are an eligible voter in general if you were registered to vote on or before the proper date, and if you made 10 posts in any location within the Atlas Forum in the 8 weeks prior to the commencement of the regular election. In other words, if your name appears on the Census list, you can presume you are eligible.  

In the event that you do not support any listed candidate or that you support one or many candidates that are not listed in addition to those that are, you may write in other candidates and include them in your list of preferences.  Space is provided for one such write-in, but as many can be listed as you wish.  In the event that you do not support any listed candidate, and do not wish to write in any candidate, you may place an X or a 1 beside "None of the above", and only beside "None of the above".  In the event that an X or a 1 appears beside "None of the above" on a ballot, all other marks or numbers will be ignored.  It is not permissible under current election law to vote for both "None of the above" and other candidates.

Note that voting begins at midnight and ends in exactly 72 hours.

Names of candidates follow in alphabetical order.

AT-LARGE SENATE

[  ] Alfred F. Jones of Puerto Rico
^{Labor Party}

[  ] HagridoftheDeep of South Carolina
^{Federalist Party}

[  ] Kalwejt of Vermont
^{Liberal Party}

[  ] Matt from VT of Massachusetts
^{Federalist Party}

[  ] MaxQue of Colorado
^{Labor Party}

[  ] Mr. X of Ohio
^Independent

[  ] Napoleon of Connecticut
^{Liberal Party}

[  ] Poirot of New York
^Independent

[  ] Write-in:______________________________


[  ] None of the above

[minionofmidas]

You may vote for any or all candidates running for office; you may write-in the names of any current Atlasian citizens

Alright, I will.

[homelycooking]

You may vote for any or all candidates running for office; you may write-in the names of any current Atlasian citizens

Alright, I will.

I hate this job.

[Sbane]

People, I know being selfish is fun, but why not be considerate towards other people once in a while? Homely has a tough, thankless job. Do any of you volunteer to do his job? Would you be as good at it as him?

[homelycooking]

The unofficial count and results will be published around 0900 - 1000. It will take me a little while.

[homelycooking]

Yellow: elected with quota
Orange: elected without quota

The five invalid votes are:

px75 (not registered to vote)
freefair (editing)
dkrolga (registration waiting period)
McGovern (inactivity)
TDAS04 (registration waiting period)

I chose not to enforce the liberal interpretation of campaigning, because as many as 10% of the ballots cast would have been ruled invalid had I done so.

On to the voter rolls...

[Kitteh]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

[homelycooking]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

First preference write-in for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon".

[homelycooking]

OFFICIAL RESULTS

AT-LARGE SENATE



HAGRIDOFTHEDEEP is elected At-Large Senator.
MR. X is elected At-Large Senator.
NAPOLEON is elected At-Large Senator.
KALWEJT is elected At-Large Senator.
MAXQUE is elected At-Large Senator.

There was a total turnout of 139 votes, with 5 ballot papers being rejected.

I, Homelycooking, Secretary of Federal Elections, declare the above results to be a complete and accurate summary of the votes cast.

[homelycooking]

I've adopted a more "user-friendly" method of reporting election results.

No more elections for a little while...please?

[Kitteh]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

First preference write-in for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon".

I may have to hire Bacon King to file a lawsuit against these results.

[Napoleon]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

First preference write-in for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon".

I may have to hire Bacon King to file a lawsuit against these results.

There's no valid lawsuit to bring about.

[Kitteh]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

First preference write-in for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon".

I may have to hire Bacon King to file a lawsuit against these results.

There's no valid lawsuit to bring about.

My ballot was misinterpreted.

[Napoleon]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

First preference write-in for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon".

I may have to hire Bacon King to file a lawsuit against these results.

There's no valid lawsuit to bring about.

My ballot was misinterpreted.

Write-In candidates must accept any ballots given to them. They can do so by declaring so in the candidate deceleration thread, or, by writing themselves in. Any write-ins, regardless of preference, that have not accepted, must be removed before any other counting is done. This includes so-called "Joke Write-Ins". All valid write-ins must be counted as valid ballots. This also includes "Joke Write-Ins". The determination of validity is not yours to make beyond ensure the candidate both accepts write-ins, and, is eligible for the office.

[Northeast Rep Snowball]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

First preference write-in for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon".

I may have to hire Bacon King to file a lawsuit against these results.

There's no valid lawsuit to bring about.

My ballot was misinterpreted.

if you don't like the way it was interpreted (it was legal), then put the joke right ins after the real votes.

[ilikeverin]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

First preference write-in for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon".

I may have to hire Bacon King to file a lawsuit against these results.

There's no valid lawsuit to bring about.

My ballot was misinterpreted.

if you don't like the way it was interpreted (it was legal), then put the joke right ins after the real votes.

Yeah.  The fact that joke write-ins are still counted as proper preferences is as established in Atlasian tradition as their existence in the first place!

[homelycooking]

How was my vote counted? As a 1st pref write-in for myself or for Alfred?

First preference write-in for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon".

I may have to hire Bacon King to file a lawsuit against these results.

Your vote immediately transfered to Alfred when the write-ins were eliminated. It makes no difference to the results whether I count it as a first preference for "All of these choices suck except Matt Damon" (you) or for Alfred. But you changed your display name to match the commentary you wrote into the ballot and even reregistered as such. Why the hell am I not supposed to count it as a self-write-in?

I went out of my way to count your frivolous and asinine ballot, and this is the thanks I get? A threat to waste even more of my time in a pointless court case? How dare you.

Don't mistake my leniency in counting the ballots for approval of your attempt at cleverness. Your ballot belongs in the garbage, even if I could not bring myself to throw it there.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Guys, give Homely a break. He handled this election very good.

[Northeast Rep Snowball]

Guys, give Homely a break. He handled this election very good.

GRAMMAR!!!

[DemPGH]

See, I thought we went over this sufficiently. "Joke votes" are really the equivalent of writing in joke answers on a test. If someone does a "joke write-in" they should not complain about how it is interpreted since it was a joke. Frankly, if I took the time to waste my vote on a joke vote, I wouldn't care how it got interpreted. And Homely's solid rationale for how he counted the vote is more analytical than mine would be.