What if 2 people running for an elected office, have the exact same name? If it’s the general election, no problem, they’d be seperated by what party they were in. But what if it’s the primary? What if 2 guys, both named John Doe Smith, are running in the Democratic primary for Congress.
How would they set the ballot up so you know which one is which. Has this ever happened?
I believe tactics like this have been used before by politicians. It’s not too hard to round up someone with the same name as someone. I believe that in most cases, state election officials have the discretion to put different forms of a name on the ballot to help out the voters. The local election official could tell John Doe Smith #1 that he gets to use his middle name on the ballot and #2 does not.
I would think that a judge would accept such a compromise.
In California, in addition to names, there are occupations listed for candidates (except for President/Vice President). That would serve as a distinction also.
We chatted about this last year: presidential duplicates.
As a side note, several elections ago in Britain, one of the candidates for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party legally changed his name to “Margaret Thatcher” and ran against the other Margaret Thatcher in her constituency.
Can’t remember how they distinguished the two on the ballot - party affiliation, probably. (Plus, it got so much press attention that I would think the voters would have known about it by election day.)
Anyone who’s interested in the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, here’s their official site. (The link posted in last year’s thread has been shut down, in a memorial to the death of Lord Sutch, one of the founding members of the Monster Raving Loony Party.)