ELECTION DAY IN MONTEREY
The thriving mountain town of Monterey, Virginia has long had a tradition of voting entirely by write-in ballots on election day.
Since I am already writing this piece, I assume the practice is still in effect. The system has some interesting sidelights about it.
I sure there are very few places which follow this system of voting without the usual printed ballots.. I wonder which is the oldest of those who do so and how long it has been maintained.
There are nopolitical campaigns in the usual sense. No speeches. No campaign posters and banners splattered on every fence, tree or power pole. A bare minimum of election talk is forthcoming in most areas. All citizens are informed as much as they choose to be without such pressures being applied to change their opinions.
You simply enter the booth and set down the names you think best fitted for the offices designated. The names of the post to be filled is there but the area following us left blank. Occasionally, some one is elected who refuses to serve, but political loyalties run strong in such a community and that seldom happens.
The theory holds that the ones thought best are selected, but that ,too, varies from time to time. One individual. For instance, may excel as a leader and fall short as an administrator in the office. Few rebel against the system
One young lawyer, some years ago, decided he would buck the old-fashioned system. He campaigned furiously. He was elected but after a month or two on the job left town and has yet to return.
The Monterey voting system means extra work for the county Registrar,of course, counting the ballot. That official l has regularly petitioned them and others to consider doing away with the system,but. As ,as far as I know, as I know, they have e been unsuccessful. The system cannot be condemned as being old-fashioned. It didn't start until shortly after World War II. It is the “new” way of voting.
It may well have been supplanted recently. I don't know. The critical fault of the system is that without debate or discussion ....political brawling and bravado at the ballot box so Election Day is not what Election Day should be.
The write-in system, someone has said , results in “under kill”.
A.L.M. June 9. 2003 [c404wds]
