Donna Frye should be mayor of San Diego

Posted on January 2, 2005 by Ampersand

So I haven’t been following the news from San Diego lately, but I read this on a right-wing blog.

In San Diego, incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy was declared the winner when 5,547 ballots cast for write-in candidate Donna Frye were declared invalid by the courts. The ballots had Frye’s name written in, but did not have the associated bubble (indicating a write-in vote) filled in. Had those ballots been counted, Frye would have defeated Murphy by 3,439 votes.

I read that paragraph, and looked up, and it occurred to me that this was the right moment for me to stop reading. Because right now, I have no idea what political party Dick Murphy is from, or Donna Frye, or how their views differ.

So I can be somewhat sure that I’m not being partisan when I say: Donna Frye should have won the election. If someone writes a name in the write-in vote space, and otherwise hasn’t marked the relevant area of the ballot, then we can be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that they intended to vote for the person they wrote in. For the court to allow an election to be turned by people forgetting to fill in the bubble is a travesty; it’s putting technicalities above substance.

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3 Responses to Donna Frye should be mayor of San Diego

  1. Idiot/Savant says:
    January 7, 2005 at 1:15 pm

    “technicalities above substance” describes the entire US approach to constitutional and electoral law. It’s seen as a game to be won by finding the loopholes, rather than as ideals to live up to.

  2. jane says:
    January 10, 2005 at 4:52 pm

    no kidding! i live in san diego… and this is somewhat maddening….

  3. arbitraryaardvark says:
    February 10, 2005 at 12:08 am

    Yes and no.
    Much more on this at Rick Hasen electionlawblog.org.
    And a few comments at my ballots.blogspot.com.
    I absolutely agree agree every write in vote should be counted.
    However, this wasn’t a regular election. It was a run-off between the top two, after nobody got a majority in the first round. That’s how the city charter says to do it.
    They should not have allowed write-in in the run off.

    Frye isn’t just a Democrat, in a race where the other two are Republicans. She’s a surfer, community activist, and seems pretty cool. But nobody kept her from running in the first round

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