what would happen if two people with the exact same name both ran for president? how would they tell them apart on the ballot? would they be called “John Doe a” and “John Doe b”? if so, who would get to be “a”?
eggo
Call them George and Al. Who’d know the difference?
The SOP for duplicate names in a file or list is usually to have the date of birth follow the name.
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
It wouldn’t matter with President or Vice President. You’d see two distinct slates of electors, with their party name and “John Doe” at the head of each list.
Partisan labels would help out with any other such occurence, but naturally not in nonpartisan elections.
Any similarity in the above text to an English word or phrase is purely coincidental.
eggo, are we to assume that both candidates are the same sex? I ask for a reason…
During my high school career, there was a girl in my grade (we shared no classes) who had the same name as me. My given name is Terry, and there are a great many Teresa’s and such that go by that name. We also shared the same middle initial. In other words, we were both “Terry L. XYZ.”
From my viewpoint, the smartest thing the school could have done to differentiate between us would have been to use the complete given names. Mine is Terrence; I don’t actually know what hers was, but I doubt if it was Terrence. As an alternative, the school could have used our middle names instead of the initials. Mine is Lee; hers was Lynn.
Instead, in its infinite wisdom, the school came up with the convention of tacking an identifier after our names. Thus, for the duration of my high school sojourn, I was “Terry XYZ (boy)” and she, of course was “Terry XYZ (girl).” Every report card I got said “Terry XYZ (boy).” I think I even got a certificate for winning a spelling bee made out that way.
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
T
Some day one of your descendents will be going through old records to reconstruct a family tree - and find all these certificates that say Terry XYZ (boy) 
Probably start a whole new branch of anthropology with that.
Terence: Chromosomely speaking, it would have worked perfectly to call HER Terry (XX) and you Terry (XY).
[URL TROLL]What if it’s Jamie Lee Curtiss (True Lies, Trading Places) and a guy with the same name?[/URL TROLL]
Several elections ago in Britain, one of the candidates for the 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.)
and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel to toe
man, and i thought MY last name was bad…
eggo
After reading jti’s post I just had to find out more about the Monster Raving Loony Party. Lo and behold, they have a sample ballot on one of their sites. In Britain candidates are identified by their address as well as their name.
http://www.omrlpg.freeuk.com/BallotForm.html
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.