How many people might scan down to independent and vote not realizing it is a vote for Trump. Trump is listed as an independent on the Ballot.
Where?
Here in California I see that too.
What ballot, where? He was listed as a Republican on mine.
And even if so, that might be a factor for Congress races, but everyone knows who the two Presidential candidates are this time, and those are the names that they’re looking for.
Where?
On our local ballot, the down-ticket Dems were also listed as the nominated candidates of the local Working Families Party, and one Republican was cross-listed as an Independent. But the two main Presidential candidates were only listed under their respective parties.
He’s not shown as an independent. In California, he’s also the nominee of the American Independent party.
Fun fact: the AIP’s best known candidate up to this point had been notorious segregationist George Wallace, who in 1968 was the last third party candidate to win any electoral votes (total of 45).
Not so fun fact: They are the largest third party in California mostly due to registrants mistakenly thinking they are the same thing as “no party preference”
I am embarrassed to admit it but I just scanned down to the word independent and voted, more as a protest vote knowing the independent would never win. So I inadvertantly voted for Trump. I doubt I am the only one to have done this.
Well either way a protest vote is a vote for Trump. So no harm done.
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But it won’t count for his Republican score.
If Trump ® and Trump (AIP) together have a majority of votes but neither has a plurality on their own, what happens?
It’s not unusual in New York for one candidate to be the nominee for several parties. Clinton is the nominee for the Democratic Party, the Women’s Equality Party, and the Working Families Party. Trump is the nominee for the Republican Party and the Conservative Party.
New York has a combination of batshit-weird laws that, if I understand correctly, aren’t replicated elsewhere:
Fusion, also known as Cross-Endorsement, permits a single candidate to appear on the ballot as the candidate of multiple parties; that isn’t all that uncommon, although many states do not permit it; but New York also has:
Opportunity to Ballot, which permits a candidate who is not registered as a member of, let’s say, the Teal Party, to gather signatures from some floor-threshold of Teal Party members (including, if necessary, signing up new people as Teal Party members for the express purpose of signing this politican’s petition), enough people to get on the ballot, without the permission of the organized Teal Party. If the Teal Party has their own legitimate (registered-as-Teal) candidate, they are forced to hold a primary and may lose to a Democrat or Republican who is using “opportunity to ballot” to acquire the Teal line. If the Teal Party doesn’t have their own candidate for this office, it’s already a done deal, the Democrat or Republican, by virtue of gathering a handful of signatures, gets to be listed as the Teal Candidate without the agreement or permission of the Teal Party.
On my San Diego, CA ballot Trump and Pence are listed once. with REP,AI as the party affiliation. So at least in San Diego you don’t specifically say which parties candidate you are voting for.
Oregon allows one person to run under multiple parties, but their name is shown a single time and their votes aren’t split by party. See here (PDF) for an example of this year’s ballot. Jill Stein is running as both Pacific Green and Progressive, Brad Avakian (secretary of state) is running as Democrat, Working Families, and Progressive, etc.
Yup, this was me as a rebellious newcomer to CA. “I’m not going to join a party, I’ll register as independent!” It was a month before I realized I’d joined what’s effectively the American Nazi party.
Thanks for the summary! Opportunity to ballot sounds skeevy, but I am all for fusion ticketing. It would be nice to be able to put a little spin on my presidential vote.