President
Two United States Senators
United States Representative
NY Governor
NY Lt Governor
NY Comptroller
NY Attorney General
NY Supreme Court Justice
State Senator
Member of the State Assembly
County Court Judge
County Clerk
County Legislator
County Commisioner of Jurors
Town Supervisor
Town Clerk
Town Justice
Town Councilman
Police Justice
Receiver of Taxes
Highway Superintendant
Village Mayor
Village Trustee
Looking at today’s ballot reminded me of this thread so I counted.
This was a fairly short ballot this time, with no senator and no president, and several other things off cycle. Only thirty positions and 6 proposals. I am confident my choices for the Community college regents board will finally turn this country around.
When I was in the US, I voted for about as many as any other American, including judges, sheriff, etc. Now in Canada, I can vote for MP (federal), MNA (provincial), the mayor and all six council members for my town and one member of the school board. As a matter of fact, after our mayor died one of the councilors ran unopposed to replace her and now we are voting on Sunday to replace him. But the candidates have been so quiet that they have given me no incentive to vote.
The most bizarre election I ever voted in involved voting for 118 members of the Illinois lower house. The lower house of the legislature had 177 (= 359) seats and the districting had been ruled illegal. The legislature had been unable to agree on a redistricting and finally agreed to an election in which all seats were at-large, but each party would be allowed to nominate only 118 (= 259) candidates. So at the poll we were each presented with a ballot that had two columns of names, each with 118 names on it. Say all the names on the left column were Dems and all on the right were Reps. There was a big square at the head of each column and x-ing that meant a straight party vote. There was also a square next to each candidate and you could, if you wished, simply choose 118 candidates to vote for. Now here was the bizarre part. You could x in the party line square, say for the Dems and then x in a few Reps. In that case, your vote would be given to the Reps you voted for and the guy across from him would lose your vote, even though they were in no sense direct opponents. The outcome was more or less predictable. 118 Dems won and the 59 Reps with the most relatives or friends (or the most relatives and friends who were otherwise voting Dem) won seats. Needless to say, the first act of the new legislature was to redistrict itself.
Borough Councillor
London Assembly (arguably two people elected, because it uses a hybrid (constituency/list system)
Mayor of London
Member of UK Parliament
Member of European Parliament
I’ll take Wallenstein’s word for it that I’m technically also eligible to vote in parish council elections.
Thanks to the joys of proportional representation, I don’t get to elect anyone directly - at best I vote for a party in the local government elections who may or may not appoint the person they promised to my ward if they win the most votes therein.
Senator (this year, there were two senate races in NY, BTW).
Representative
State
Governor/Lieutenant Governor (run in tandem)
Attorney General
Comptroller
State Senator
Member of State Assembly (Lower House)
Supreme Court Judge (this is not the highest court in the state; it’s the highest trial court; the Court of Appeals is above it).
Supreme Court Judge
Supreme Court Judge
County
County Legislature Representative
County Legislature Representative
County Legislature Representative
County Legislature Representative
Surrogate Court Judge
Family Court Judge
Family Court Judge
County Court Judge
Town of Rotterdam
Town Supervisor
Town Council Member
Town Council Member
Town Council Member
Town Council Member
Chief of Police
Highway Department Chief
Town Court Judge
Town Court Judge
Receiver of Taxes
Town Clerk
One reason New York has so many elected officials was Tammany Hall. Tammany would appoint judges who paid them for the appointment and who could make up the money by dipping into the money paid in fines. And a post like Receiver of Taxes was clearly a nice gem for a corrupt government. Good government groups pushed for elections to help fight Tammany’s influence (yes, they could get out the vote, but good government groups had a fighting chance).
What exactly does a parish council in England do? My only exposure to them was the one on Vicar of Dibley, and they seemed to mostly hand church stuff.
All the elections I vote in (Germany) are on the list principle (pure list or mixed member proportional), so my vote marginally impacts all seats
99 German members of the European Parliament
598+ members of the Bundestag (plus overhang seats - 24 at present)
139 seats in the Landtag (state parliament)
59 seats in the Kreistag (district council)
40 seats in the city council
1 mayor
(also a number of association and church officials, e.g. 100 synod members and 9 parish council members)
Mayor of London
Member(s) of the London Assembly (no idea how many I can vote for)
Hackney Borough Councillor(s) (again, I think I pick a few, but no idea how many)
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the UK Parliament.
Is that it? Does Hackney have a mayor? I don’t even remember.
Also, as a member of the Labour Party, I get to vote for the Leader and what seems like dozens of different committees and representatives, but then I do pay for that privilege. But it at least gives me an idea of voting overload you get in the US – I do try and read the biogs/policies of all the people putting themselves forward but it does get a bit ‘pin the tail on the donkey’.
So what do you non-Americans think when you see these monster American lists? Do you think we’re all out of our frigging gourd? (If so, you’re right.) Do you picture us gathering in taverns, quaffing cheap American beer while we argue the merits of sanitary district trustees and county comptrollers? Are you jealous that you don’t get to select your own recorders of deeds?