Letter: Bullet Voting

In a letter, MyRye.com reader, political gadfly and Midland Avenue resident Charmian Neary suggests you fire a bullet on election day:

I want to talk to you about bullet voting. I am only voting for the candidates I want most to win. You do not have to vote for three — nor do you have to vote for a "slate". You can do one from column A and one or two from column B.  

Remember if you cast a third vote for someone for whom you are lukewarm, you may be unwittingly giving that person enough votes to place third and your favorite places fourth. 

For example, say there are two seats instead of three (just to simplify things). You really want Joe Sack to win so you vote for Joe and cast your second vote for Michael Vick.  I really want Josh Nathan to win so I vote for Josh and cast my second vote for …well I don't really care… but Michael Vick is a pretty good guy so I cast my vote for Michael Vick.

The result is your first choice only has 1 vote ( Joe Sack) and my first choice only has 1 vote ( Josh Nathan) but we've both given Michael Vick a vote so he's ahead of both our guys with 2 votes. Enough people cast their second or third vote carelessly and either Joe or Josh might place out of the running behind Michael Vick. So if you really want one or two people to win only vote for them — especially if you really don't want someone else to win.