A Secret Code on my Ballot Saved Me
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
- Anyway, Vote.org everybody.
I am going to keep thinking about the "Everything is a Conspiracy Theory if you don't know how anything works" meme. I think it's, like, 50% right. But really important to note here that the fact that I got a ballot with democrats all on the bottom was both unlikely and guaranteed. Like, it was unlike that I would get one with all democrats on the bottom, but guaranteed that SOMEONE would. So conspiracy theories are really:
One part distrust in systems
One part not knowing how systems work
One part the universe presenting you with information that confirms your anti-system biases.
And, of course, all three of those things lean on each other. Not understanding systems because they are massively complex leads to distrusting those systems. Not trusting systems leads to being more likely to falsely misattribute something random to something malicious. And then of course you have all of the magnification systems of the news media and social media and wall-to-wall bad actors who just want to win elections.
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To be fair, people who fill out surveys are self-evidently fond of voting
An excellent point...
Yes
It's soo fun to fill out surveys though😂 voting isn't that fun cause you feel like you're deciding the fate of the whole world while at the same time having next to no power at all. In surveys you're usually asked about youself your opinions or your behaviours... that's way easier. Still both are worth doing
Triple confirmation bias
The only way we will know for sure is if we send out a survey of people who already filled out the last survey
Missoula County voter here. I was wondering why RFK Jr was the top Presidential candidate on my ballot, and couldn't make heads or tails on the candidate order. thank you Hank, I never knew this!
😂😂 that is a weird one
To infinity and beyond, the number increasing rapidly the further one gets from Missoula, Montana.
Oregon ballot is the same.
It's tripy, even in Cali RFK Jr still didn't have time to get off the ballet. It litterly led to a law suit between RFK Jr's Campaign and some states.
The point about conspiracy theories being based on a lack of *trust* rather than a lack of information is a pretty significant point to make. I suppose the question is how to regain trust in the systems worth trusting
I also think some people refuse to trust the people and systems working on information
@@jesterca159 True. Which, as a library professional, makes trying to get the right information to such people very difficult.
Paper ballots only, counted by hand. One day voting. No mail-in ballots. Not that hard.
@@streglof that makes it a lot more difficult for people that work long shifts, disabled people who may only be able to vote by mail, or people without transportation to get to the polls. Everyone should have the right to vote.
@@JustineEPhotography but let's agree with them with the paper ballot part - I could imagine that generally there is more trust in a paper ballot that one marks by their own hand vs. a computer system that could be manipulated digitally. But hand counting... no. That's absurd. Computers can count, people can verify.
Kudos to Hank for prudentially protecting his location but at the same time... doesn't Hank occupy like 5% of the MT population??😅
In a small state it is indeed the case that districts are very small!!
Hank's vote counts more than the average American. Usually unfortunate but in this case, I trust Hank to represent us.
(small state) - The American West is very weird.
@@vlogbrothers i am sensing a winking emoji is due. How many northeastern states would fit in your congressional "district"?
@@Amberpawn Small state by population, not landmass.
This made me look back at my mail in ballot and I also noticed that republicans are all listed first (even right leaning candidates in non partisan races were listed first). I decided to google Florida’s policies and actually the policy is to list the party of the governor first which seems a little unfair. For the non partisan races the policy is to list them alphabetically and in an astonishing coincidence all of the right leaning non partisan candidates in my district happen to just be first alphabetically
Oh Florida 😞
I just came here to comment on this. I recently read an article about bias in elections and learned that people on the top of the ballot have a 1 to 2 percentage point advantage (yeah, there are people who, all things being equal, will vote for who is listed first). This was long suspected, but actual evidence now supports it. So, When George W. Bush won the extremely close election for the presidency back in 2000, with all the drama caused by the 'hanging chads' and the Supreme Court getting involved, in FLORIDA, which held the key to who won that year, and where the party who's governor is in power determines whose name goes first on the ballot? Who was governor of Florida at the time? JEB Bush.
So, because of the undeniable unfairness that was a deliberate part of the system, so much is different from what it would have been otherwise. I realize that that's a true statement much of the time, bit it's not usually so specific. Talk about granular.
Wow Florida.... That's shameful. Thanks for looking. That's very interesting
Texas does this, too, ordering parties by their rank in the previous gubernatorial election (so it applies to more than just first place). This gives us Republicans first, then Democrats, then Libertarians, then Greens. This is also how we report our official election results, so if you look at results from the 1994 election or before, Democrats will be listed first.
I tried to look up ours (Wisconsin) but can't seem to settle on the correct search terms.
In NC we decide ballot order through a bingo ball and a coin flip! Bingo ball that says which letter to start with and coin flip to decide alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order from there.
that seems like such a jaunty way to do it! I love the things people come up with
Wild...our way is better!!!
Don't y'all have a nonpartisan state election board? Easiest way to deflect criticism
@@youtubewatcher2 In the US, having a political position be actually nonpartisan is a pipe dream. It's the reason why there's gerrymandering.
@@leadpaintchips9461 there is gerrymandering because most states have redistricting done by legislatures. Maryland and North Carolina are the most extreme examples. The state election board monitors the conduct of elections not redistricting.
This election Wisconsin voters have a neutral state map for the first time in 30 years. Ohio has an initiative to establish a nonpartisan commission.
Feel like we should list "no opinion" first. Because people do not read the part of the ballot that says "if you don't know just leave it empty" and instead just mark the first choice
Really? Do people just mark a candidate instead of skipping the section when they don't have a preference?
It would be interesting to see if having "no opinion" listed first would negate the advantage of candidate order, though.
Isn't spoiling your ballot a thing in the US?
My sister told me this year she was just gonna mark random for the local non partisan races and I was like “please god no, you know you can just leave that part blank right?”
This in Canada one of the things that bothers me is that it's so difficult to spoil a ballet without it being detected as an "accidental" issue which they flag. There should always be, "No opinion" and finally a "I disagree with all parties listed" as a separate vote and it should be tabulated and released in the final number. If40% of the voters think neither party is good but still vote for their least hated one it should be known.
@@myladycasagrande863 It's honestly more surprising to me that someone would assume this isn't happening all the time.
Hank, I appreciate so much the curiosity you attempt to instill in people. Instead of saying, “huh, there’s a thing and now it’s just a thing I attach my biases and assumptions to,” you actually indulge the curiosity and ask why it’s a thing. Thank you. It is hard to try and get people to think like this but you and John do such a wonderful job of trying to teach it and I’m grateful.
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Great to hear that >90% of American Nerdfighters vote. We're counting on you
Or 90% of American nerdfighters who answer surveys vote, which could be very different. Naturally, the kind of person who has filled the survey likes ticking boxes on a piece of paper more than someone who ignored it.
@@Fiasko- Ha, good point
@@Fiasko-so many people neglect survivorship bias
You're assuming that all Nerdfighters vote the same way?
I can’t imagine anyone who is for reducing the cost of tuberculosis testing, is fascinated by science, is passionate about donating money to all kinds of charitable causes and is against book bans as being a supporter of anyone but Kamala Harris in this race. And if you don’t like that kind of content, I honestly don’t know what you’re doing watching this channel!
Here in Texas you're only allowed a mail-in ballot if you're disabled, a senior citizen, or will be out of the state. Everyone else has to go vote in person. I always, always, always vote early to avoid the long lines. This year I'm voting Monday, the first day that early voting opens.
OMG I am also in Texas, you've inspired me to be your twin and try to vote on Monday! I'm getting my voting plan in order
@@theyxaj Yay, we're voting twins!!
I vote early, but not the first day of early voting because lines are long then too. Texas voter here as well.
@@aina3387 I live in a smaller town (6000 population) so the lines aren't ever bad during early voting. Heck, election day might not be too bad here either, but I don't want to chance it. I also don't want to chance something happening to keep me from voting, so better to get it out of the way as soon as possible.
@@HappilyCarnivore Plus, it's such a relief that nothing can persuade your vote after it's cast!
It is incredibly hard for some people to know who to trust. Frankly, I am so tired of having to fact check every word that people say. It makes holiday gatherings a nightmare.
This is why, in our house, we make alcohol an integral part of every family gathering. 😎
@@bjkarana Brilliant. 😂
Epistemic Overload...
@vlogbrothers can you explain this? I'm having a hard time finding a good definition.
There is also a way of just chatting of what we think, and fact checking only if it's actually critical piece of info. There will be mistakes, but there's freedom and tranquility in not having to be right all the time. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and we are not supposed to put anyone in a high pedestal, to believe them over everyone else, anyway.
Family gatherings should be a place of warmth and trust. If something said keeps bothering us after, we can always fact check in our own time xD
If only 90% of the election content people saw was this balanced
I know...I was really hoping for a title and thumbnail that would make this one take off but alas, it's normal!!
If only 90% of voters would choose policy over emotion, we wouldn’t have the most spectacular crap foisted on us every four years. Also, Citizens United is problematic.
@@danf1862 thats never been anything but a dumb take.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 bot detected.
As a foreigner who was always curious about the form of US ballots, you have completely made my day. I wish you could show more types, and the different types of elections in any givem Estate. Thank you VERY, VERY much! ❤
Being that my initials are D.A., I was always first on any list. First on the rolls in school. I got badge number 001 when I was hired at a newly constructed business. I'm always first. Should I run for office? Wait. I missed the point of the video.
ZW here and I always had the opposite experience lol, always at the back of the classroom
@@Kazzzackand the crappiest school books!
David Archuleta? I loved you on American Idol. You should run for office!
Gotta go with something like Aaron Aaronson to maximise the alphabetical advantage.
@@OneEyeShadow it is an Ad last name...
Thank you Hank! As a former elections manager in Michigan I have weekly head slap moments over the rhetoric consuming our election conversation. Thank you for being fair and fun!
It sure is great being lectured on how to run elections by people who have no understanding of election law and have never worked in elections, isn’t it?
I live in a red state that borders Montana and when I opened my mail-in ballot 2 days ago, I was SHOCKED to see Harris's name listed first. I can't recall that ever happening before. This - or something a lot like it - must be the reason why.
What made it even more shocking is that there are no less than NINE candidates for Pres on my ballot. I've only heard of 5 of them.
I have 8 on my ballot, also shocked me, and I was also frustrated to see one of them is obviously not a real person and didn’t even have a VP listed. Makes it harder to be confident in these kind of things when shenanigans like that make it through.
On my ballot in Michigan I have 8, including 2 tickets with no party affiliation. We also still have RFK Jr. even though he doesn't want to run any more because instead of going as an independant the Natural Law Party nomined him and it is illegal for candidates nominated via party conventions to withdraw in Michigan.
@Random3716 RFK's still on mine as well. I'm just not sure of the particulars in my state regarding candidates when it comes to inclusion vs omission vs removal. There are FIVE Independent candidates, one Dem, one Rep, one Libertarian, one Constitution, and a blank for Write-In.
@@RaeCarson Many states will still have RFK, Jr. still on their ballots for a simply reason: he withdrew AFTER the ballots were printed.
That may not seem like a big deal at first, after all just reprint the ballots... until you realize just how much extra cost gets added if you have to reprint all of the ballots. Also, that money isn't coming from a political campaign but government tax dollars. I can think of a lot of things I'd rather tax dollars go to than reprinting a bunch of ballots because one guy backed out of an election.
Mine has 6 (plus a 7th spot for “Write-In”) and I know about all but 1 of them, but then I follow 3rd party politics more than most people do.
After watching this video, I had to look at how my state sorts names on the ballot. Apparently in Utah each letter of the alphabet is assigned a random number between 1 and 26 by a computer program. These numbers become the new alphabetical order. So if Z is assigned the number 3, it will be third in the alphabet. That way the order on the ballot is totally random and gets rid of some of that bias.
This was super interesting. I would have never know this is your video didn't spike my curiosity. Thanks Hank!
That's fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
huh, that seems like a good way to do it, good job Utah!
Oregon does it basically this way too. Special randomized alphabetical order for every election.
Your state randomizes the order per-voter, right? Because if it's the same order for every voter, it's not eliminating the top-of-the-ballot advantage, it's just giving that advantage to one random candidate.
I appreciate this Hank. I have been feeling really nihilistic & pessimistic. Not like conspiracy theory level but just feels like there’s so much bad everywhere I look and it’s all hopeless regarding positive change.
A little bit of faith in humanity restored.
Also maybe I’m just stressed from all my math exams recently lol. Getting my math degree December though so if I see this again I’ll say if things really did get better 😂
@@Veroniquekky Wow! Yeah, getting a math degree and being near the end of it can be super stressful. I hope the rest of your degree goes as smoothly as it can and that we do get to participate in making some good things happen soon!
I voted in the first day of early voting in NC yesterday!
way to go!!
My two roommates and I called a friend and had a ballot filling out party last night! Happy voting y’all!
I love this for all of you! Happy voting! I am having my ballot filling out party this weekend, I think!
coming from someone who has a conspiracy theorist dad, i have made this comment on its connection to a lack of trust in anything. really great to see hank's perspective on this 💙
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." You've got this, my American friends. Stand up, speak out, be counted. There is more good in the world than there is evil, it's something the Star Wars prequels got right, evil is small in number but strong in power, good is great in number, but weak in power. I have enough American friends to know that "the man who would be king" does not represent your nation, or it's gloriously diverse, multicultural, peoples. Stand up, speak out, be counted. You have *got* this
Wow it is honestly unexpectedly very nice to hear someone being sympathetic towards americans rather than making fun of them
@@lunafoxfirethat's because OP supposes Harris will win both the popular and electoral vote.
Will OP maintain the same attitude if Trump wins both?
@@mgancarzjr OP supposes nothing. OP is merely aware that Trump has never won the popular vote thus far, and that was *before* he: attempted a self-coup; was adjudged to have assaulted, and repeatedly defamed, E Jean Carrol; his company was adjudged to have committed multiple acts of fraud against the people of New York; was tried and convicted of 34 felonies; was discovered to have willfully retained some of the nation's most sensitive national defence documents, and left them laying around in a bathroom, and even intentionally showing them to unauthorised people; repeatedly bragged about being responsible for overturning Row; repeatedly said he would be "a dictator on day one"; repeatedly maligned, and disrespected, the entirety of the US military, and their families; and at this point, I'm too tired to continue. Could Trump take the White House? Of course it's possible, the aggressive attempts to interfere with vote counting, inserting poll "watchers", and all manner of other schemes, could see the unthinkable happen. But defeatism, and negativity, about things like elections tends to dissuade people from action, and when it is literally a matter of life and death for some of the most vulnerable in society, each and every voice matters. So no, OP supposes nothing, OP believes that there is more kindness, than there is cruelty, in this world, because OP is desperate for a reason to continue drawing breath. What OP will feel if Trump wins, OP doesn't know, because OP cannot observe their future self. However, after a year of pain, misery, and deep overwhelming grief, OP makes a calculated guess that OP will have become too emotionally distraught to feel much of anything anymore. OP hopes that this response answers your query to your satisfaction, because OP won't be engaging with this particular comment thread any further.
@@lunafoxfire I'm British, moreover I am English, as such I stand in something far too greenhouse-like to be hurling chunks of geology at any other nation.
I think part of the issue is that too many things are hard anymore when they should be simple and easy. It's impossible to get away from and I think it's got everyone exhausted by now. But yes please vote, I have already done so.
lol, he thinks we don't know where he lives.
in our hearts silly!
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Hopefully not the LITERAL heart
@@N3rdfightermom _Someone_ needs to keep my atria and ventricles contracting in the proper sequence. I've got way too much to do to keep that going all by myself!
Thanks Hank! 💚
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@@falleithani5411so he is a content creator AND a pacemaker?? What a hustler
Also got my NY ballot this week. First time voting. It has a table of parties and elections and some squares have a name. So, both Trump and Harris are there twice, in some other races the candidate is in 3-4 squares. I am still shocked by this design choice. Hank, make a rabbit hole video about ballot designs!
See, _this_ is something I could get behind for a video. A confusing vote ballot format can absolutely be a well-deserved source of umbrage.
Complaining about who gets top spot in a list that isn't hierarchical is as petty as it is pointless, because not only is it taking issue with a non-issue, it's creating an issue that ipso facto _no one_ is ever going to be happy with. Move the Democrats to the top, and the Republicans will be just as justified in being angry for being knocked down as the Democrats are now, which inevitably is going to devolve into endless arguments of:
"If it's not a big deal, why did you change it?"
"Why are you upset at us for what you claimed was an irrelevant change?"
And frankly, we have plenty enough of that nonsense in politics and debate already.
Have you seen the West Wing episode where Donna accidentally votes for the republican? So relatable
Vote Working Familes. Keep "third parties" on the ballot
This is a very unique NY thing! It's called fusion voting - where more than 1 party can nominate the same person, used to be much more common but now only hangs on in NY (and, incidentally, is probably why WFP is the only 3rd party that ever wins elections)
@@PeterDivine What? Have you... watched the video?
You say it's a "non-issue", but Hank demonstrated that it indeed is an issue and affects voting behavior. You also imply there's no good solution for it, but Hank explained exactly what the solution to the issue was. Like that's literally the video.
There was an issue, people identified the issue and came up with a solution, and then they worked to implement that solution. I'm honestly not sure what the point of your comment even is.
As a Canadian, the way American elections are run is probably the most different seeming thing between our two countries
How do Canadian elections work?
@@verdant_warlock the provincial, federal, and municipal elections are all separate on different days entirely. They're administered by Elections Canada, a federal non partisan agency that isn't part of the executive branch. The ballots are very standardized, and are designed with hand counting in mind although municipal and maybe now provincial elections do have electronic readers for counting as it goes into the physical ballot box (but it's still designed for an additional hand count if the results are close or contested)
Seeing massive lineups even for early voting in the US when I've never even seen a line of more than 4 people at a day-of polling station... yikes.
@@toin9898 I've had to line up at a maximum of 30 minutes to vote on election day, but that's been not common at all, usually there's no lineup
@@joshuahillerup4290 Small correction: the provinces and smaller jurisdictions have their own election authorities as well for their local elections.
Elections Canada just handles federal elections.
So weird to think that each state can choose how they want to operate a federal election.
Technically I think that they are not federal elections, rather they are state elections of people to represent the voter at the federal gatherings: congress and the electoral college.
They aren't operating a federal election though! They're operating a state election and then letting the federal government know how it went.The people do not elect the president, the states do!
It's a weird relic of the fact that each state is told, "Okay, you get 2 senators, x number of House representatives, and x+2 Electoral College votes. You decide how you pick 'em, and just let us know who you picked!" It would be a really good idea to standardize it a little more than that.
in NC an absentee ballet requires a copy of a photo ID...plus 2 witness signatures and addresses or a notary stamp, and you have to pay for postage. Ridiculous hurdles to try to suppress the vote.
In Australia, we have compulsory voting, so randomising the order of the candidates is even more important, since when disengaged people are forced to vote, they will often do what we call a "donkey vote" and fill in the ballot 1234 etc. 😅
Thank you Hank and John for all you do
I really appreciate you calling out the impact of lack of trust. It's got me rethinking my own behaviors and attitudes towards institutions I'm a part of, especially looking at moments where I've felt really betrayed and isolated but where once I told people about the problem they were really willing and eager to help fix it. I think the times when change hasn't happened have made me pessimistic and distrusting, but I don't need to be that way. I don't gotta bring that energy. If I'm bringing distrust to an interaction, that can become self-fulfilling, can't it? It's more compassionate to myself and others to trust and respect people enough to educate them about problems, believing that they will want to help fix them. And if they don't want to help, that's on them, not on me for writing them off without even trying.
Thank you for this video. I am in California and you are correct about how are ballots are arranged. I voted 💙, by mail, yesterday. I encourage everyone else to vote as well. 😊
I’m not even American I can’t even vote but this was very entertaining for some reason
Everyone likes a good circus 😬
ok but isn't it dumb that there's an effect that benefits the top person at all? I can't fathom being like, "This first guy, he gets my vote. I can be bothered to vote but I can't be bothered to read the other names on the ballot." If they even read the first name at all.
The effect isn't as strong at the top of the ballot. There are tons of voters who show up knowing 1 or 2 top races and find there are 14 more state, local, judicial, and amendment/initiative questions on the ballot. A fair number just leave them blank, but based on what I've seen in dozens of elections in several states, lots more go down ballot checking off by party, or by name order, or perhaps name recognition, and name order ends up being a significant effect.
It might be that being higher up is an advantage over being lower down, rather than an advantage to only being at the top. If there are a lot of candidates and a lot of things to vote on, I can imagine some people reading the list until they get to a name that's similar to the candidate they want, not reading the whole list, and accidentally voting for the wrong person.
Don't forget some people show up to the polls still conflicted or undecided. If you've been unable to choose between candidates for months and show up, whoever shows up first on the piece of paper may be a swaying factor. I'm sure that's a lot less people than the other responses you've gotten so far, but I'm also sure it happens.
50 seconds in: did they finally implement randomized batches mailed out randomly
Oh!! I just looked at my ballet and I think Colorado does this too!
I don't often brag, but I have not missed a single election, national, state, or local, since 1994, and I am rather proud of that fact. Voting may be the least effective form of civic service, but it is still our duty as Americans to participate in our wonderful multicultural experiment in democracy.
Ooo that's wonderful! Way to go!
(AAA Towing) and (A1 tax services) knew being first in the phone book would give you a huge bump in business... The meta doesn't change, just the forum that it is held in.
Happily already submitted my mail-in ballot!
I work as an election judge in Minnesota and I have a lot more trust in the voting system than before:
Early Voting
the person who checks you in is NOT the person that gives you your ballot
Special machines for visually impaired or people with motor skill issues (think how hard it would be to correctly fill in an op scan with Parkinson's). These laptops in a box print directly onto a standard ballot so they get counted just like anyone else's.
Ballots are paper but are counted by op scan machines - a physical record still exists for recounts etc.
Number of printed ballots sent to polling place = Ballots cast + spolied ballots + ballots left over. Spoiled ballots are typically people using Xs instead of filling in circles or double votes for the same race.
As a former auditor I appreciate the controls.
Thanks for the explanation. Very interesting. I voted yesterday here in Colorado
I like the aussie way of doing it. We pull names out of a literal hat. Its a kinda event, and all the candidates are there, or at least scrutinisers for each candidate, and the first name pulled goes on top. The last name pulled goes on the bottom.
Get out the vote for Tester, we can do this!
Overseas voter here. Already did my part and voted last week! Real fast and simple. No excuses ;)
Just because 90% of us vote doesn’t mean 90% of your American audience votes! (I vote, but im Canadian so I unfortunately can’t help lol). I’m sure reminding your audience to vote is still v useful and important.
hmm, true! I think if i remember from the nerdfighteria census reviews he can sort by filtering the rest of the question results by one group of people from one question - so it'd theoretically be possible for him to select 'only view people who said they're from the USA' and see what the percentage of those people answered yes to voting
I believe on the Nerdighteria census you can put your location, so he could filter for that against the voting answers.
Minnesota is usually top 3 and we're 75-80% participation for Presidential year ballots.
Thanks for explaining this. I just voted by mail a few days ago and I was very confused as to why a candidate I'd never heard of from a party I'd never heard of was at the top of the ticket 😅
I got my ballot yesterday, and in Utah there's a person on the ballot for President whose name is "Justin Case." I had to Google it to make sure it was real. 😅
*freed from the stress of a 9-5 job and built a 230k savings in one month, I now have a good house and cleared off my mortgage-*
*thank you, Stacey Neal Brooks*
I keep seeing different commendations about this Stacey, she must be really good for people to speak so highly of her.
She is really a good investment strategist. I was privileged to attend some of her seminars.
That was how I started my cry’pto investment journey
Stacy is my family's personal Broker and also a personal Broker to many families in the United states, she is a licensed broker and a FINRA AGENT in the United States.
Nice meeting people who also work with Stacey, she's the only one I could trust, she got me proflts of 14,OOO with a little start up of 2,5OO and ever since she has been delivering.
Stacy Brooks has really set the standard for others to follow, we love her here in Ontario Canada as she has been really helpful and changed lots of life's
That's so interesting! Kamala Harris was listed first on mine, and it did make me wonder why that was. I didn't think all the ballots were like mine, but didn't realize people did science about it. Love it.
if voting posed bo risk to the ruling class they wouldn't do voter suppression.
order of candidates on the ballot and how it influences the results is one of those things i always wondered about!
Wow, that's actually a good way to do it. My state has a list of "here's the order of the letters of the alphabet that all candidates will be sorted by for all races this election" and they randomize that order every election.
But it does mean that for a given election, whatever order that randomization creates causes *every* ballot that election statewide to be in that order. Maybe this time it has "Candidate A" first - for everyone.
If you're in NC, only assuming because we do something similar based on bingo and coin tosses, it happens to be candidate D first this year
Wow, I just assumed that any remotely civilized voting system randomized the order of candidates on the ballot, per-voter.
This mood in this vid is perfect!
We need this everywhere! Thank you for putting this out there
In the Netherlands we elect parties proportionally, and the party lists are ordered based on performance in the previous election of the same type, and any parties that didn't participate yet get assigned a place at the end through a lottery system.
Within each party list, the candidates are listed in an order determined by the party itself.
You vote for a specific person, but when counting, your vote is initially considered as a vote for the party, which is used to assign seats to the parties, and then secondarily, the votes for each individual get counted, and all candidates who make it above a certain threshold of these preferential votes get priority in getting one of their party's seats (in order of number of votes), and then any remaining party seats are given to the remaining candidates of the party in list order.
If we ranked parties alphabetically, it would just result in there being an advantage in calling your party AAAAAAAA or something like that.
The system you described would work better (there could technically be a slight edge if the total number of ballots isn't divisible by the number of parties, but it would be minimal, our record for parties participating is 37, meaning you could at most get 36 extra ballots if you're listed first compared to those listed last, on a total number of ballots of over 13 million), but I still don't see it working here.
People are used to seeing the ballot listed based in the order from last elections, parties often also advertise their list number to help their voters easily find them, which would become more difficult with a system like that. And many actually consider it quite fair that popularity in previous elections allows being listed first, whereas new and obscure parties get listed at the end.
People also get send an example of the list to help them select in advance who they wish to vote for, but as you wouldn't know who will receive which version of the ballot (unless you're compromising voter anonymity, which is a vital part of the election integrity), you'd make it much more difficult for people to find their preferred candidate.
And listing the individuals within a party list alphabetically makes even less sense with the system we have, as the whole point is that parties can list their most favoured candidates higher on their own list.
And mixing all candidates from all parties and then alphabetically would just be utter chaos.
Our country is worth the effort it takes to vote.
In Texas the digital kiosk ballot split the Senate candidates BETWEEN PAGES in 2018 so that Ted Cruz looked like the only candidate. You had to go to the next page to see Beto's name. SMDH
every time i hear new information about Texas it seems more and more corrupt and authoritarian. i didn't think that was possible but it keeps happening.
Just googled it - in Virginia, it’s whichever candidate completes filing first.
I think since not trusting leads to being burned less, people tend to lean that way first. Pretty much all campaign ads are about making people trust the other candidate less. As a result of that, I still have no idea what either candidate stands for. For the senate race: the one in my party is newer, the opposing one used to be the governor so I know a little about him, but overall I don't really know what either of them represent. Bad things spread faster than good things, and until that changes distrust will be the first step.
I count myself lucky that between not having a tv and adblock that I don't have to see political ads. I personally tend to choose by looking up both campaign's sites, and ballotpedia to see if I can learn about their political past a bit. Usually, since I live in georgia and am a lesbian, by this point there is one political candidate who wants to take away my rights and one who doesn't, which tends to make things simpler admittedly! All things being equal, I think voting based on what a person says they want for your state and then being a terror later if they don't uphold those ideas is a solid way to go.
For down-ballot items where there's less information available, I look at facebook page campaigns, see if google turns up any additional information, and if I can't find enough to feel informed I tend to simply not vote in it, but searching around does tend to warrant some good information. For instance, last election there were two people running for a school position where I couldn't find anything objectionable on either page, but I did a little more digging and found that the library board of the state supported one candidate over the other. My sister is a librarian, I know what values library boards hold and that I generally agree with them, so it's a group where I trust their opinion on who would be better for the job.
It is a little more work to find facts about a politician's actions behind all the promises and ideas, but it is possible and even so, I think voting for the better idea put forward in the campaign is better than not voting at all
its also the negative things are specific while the positive things said they are going to do are so vague and generalized is why you can't sum up the top 3 points of what they are wanting to do once in office.
1. make it better
2. build the economy.
3. make it better
lol versus an Ad
They were the worse when they passed rule 34 and see its negative effect.
This is a good one. Good job Hank, important and good and helpful, thank you😊
The reason Hank doesn't want you to see his state house district is they are quite small in Montana. They represent around 11,000 people and in 2022 an average of 4,000 people voted in each election. You could figure out roughly what 6th of Missoula that Hank geographically is located in.
I read this as '6th of montana' and was very confused for a moment lmao
It's even more specific than that because there are city districts that don't overlap perfectly with the state ones! I'd guess that fewer than 1000 people got the exact ballot I did.
I just put my mail-in ballot request in the mail because of this video. Thanks!
yay! Voting by mail is awesome.
Utah orders candidates based on a random alphabetical order that changes each year.
I absolutely love that the brothers start their streams saying good morning to one another.
Nerdfighters- one or two votes at each polling location determined the last election. YOUR VOTE MATTERS MORE THAN YOU KNOW
Very interesting. Had to search my own state laws, and it turns out that Ohio follows the same procedures!
How much caffeine dude? Great analysis! 💙💙💙!
Thank you for articulating that point about conspiracy theories, I think it helped me find a new way to reality check my OCD symptoms.
Best part of my days! Top o’ the morning to ya Hank!
I have always voted in person, so this is something I never thought of! Good catch Hank!!
I am still astonished to see, how complicated the voting in America is. Here in Czechia, every adult citizen is also automatically an elligible voter. No registration, no voter suppression. Ballots get delivered to every citizen by mail, or you can just ask for replacement ones in the voting room after you show your ID.
A very clever system. Thanks for sharing, Hank. Cheers, Ian.
i wish it was easier to register to vote
For an example of people organizing about ballot order this year, look at New Jersey's "county line" system for primaries. A relic of the political machine days, whomever an obscure group of county party officials decided to endorse in each race would be listed first, and all in one column as if they were all running on one ticket. So if the incumbent president was running for reelection, then all of the county party's favored candidates would be listed under the president, and all of their disfavored candidates would be listed under the president's challenger. Obviously super unfair and enough people finally tuned in and were fed up about it that it was abolished just a few months ago.
Sounds like Union bosses may have been involved...
My roomie, wife, and I cast our civic duty this mornin
huzzah! Well done!
As an Arkansan I just looked up our laws. It looks like every county decide ballot order by drawing names. Whoever gets picked first is listed first, super interesting!
On uk ballot papers all the candidates have a picture of their party logo next to them, and the name of their party, so it's easy to find the one you want. Candidates are always in alphabetical order. You're right that is a type of bias, but it also maximises ease to find your candidate, and it's easy for everyone to know the order hasn't been interfered with.
Love the Jon Tester banner in the lower right!
The sad part here is that there is an effect from the order of the names... do people just spend time out of their day only to pick randomly? huh?
If the list is long, especially if the order is random, some people might accidentally vote for a candidate with a similar name to the one they wanted.
Thank you for explaining my ballot to me!
1:26 I don’t think this is a weird way to do it. The lack of uniformity in how voting is conducted makes fixing an election almost completely impossible. There is no single point of failure.
This is true! Most other countries figure it out with a universal system, though.
The swing states make this a vulnerability though. Look at Florida in 2000, where the process was corrupted and reversed the outcome of the election. The candidate who lost the election by a not-insignificant margin was awarded not only the state but the presidency by having votes not counted.
This reminded me to apply for an absentee ballot a week before the deadline
My friend votes from overseas, & although they received their ballot electronically, it turns out they have to print it out & FedEx it back. So if you're abroad, you may be in the same situation in which case get it sent back asap!
bump to this!!! I didn't end up voting in a midterm when I lived in the UK because the mail ballot process took too long and was too complicated, don't be me! make your plan today and start enacting it!
+++
This actually reminded me to double-check where and when I'm going to vote. I'm just northwest of you in the province of British Columbia, and our provincial election is tomorrow. This was well timed.
I have almost no faith or trust in my local election board or the US Post office in my district. The polls ran out of paper last year so the votes couldn't be printed (nor counted). 2 years ago my ballot was apparently lost and when I went to vote I had to fill out a provisional ballot and they weren't counted because of some clerical or representative absences until after the deadline. This year the election manager had to be sued because she thought it would be too "insecure'' to put the drop boxes out. There were only 4 in this very large NE PA county, but as of now there are (as far as I know) only 2 in place... a long drive for many who would use the mail in ballots. I did get my ballot this year and I started getting reminders on my phone to send it in even before I got the ballot. But honestly I'm flummoxed about what to do. We only have one day for in-person voting here in PA and I'd like to mail it but I want to make sure it's counted. Unless I show up at the poll on election day, there seems not way to do that.
Do you have the option to hand in your postal ballot at the polling station on election day?
@@SomeoneBeginingWithI I think when you hand in your ballot they either take the ballot or they give you a provisional ballot. I didn't get a receipt. My problem is that my polling place is 5 miles away and in early November the weather is as iffy in this area as my transportation. I will check into that though. If I have to drive into the city center - that's 15 miles.
That was a remarkably even-handed presentation of an election story. Hard to find even-handedness anywhere these days.
Just figured out where my new polling place is after hurricane helene destroyed my other one! If you needed a push to vote, let this be it
I wish the US was like Australia and made voting mandatory.
The subtle Jon Tester sign in the bottom right is just perfect!
I am so worried about his position.
@@N3rdfightermom Tester's?
@@danielpereira2080 yes, we really need to keep the senate and his race isn’t looking good
@@N3rdfightermom Yeah. It's very tight. Donate if you can. If you're in MT go knock doors. If you're out of state and want to volunteer lmk and I'm sure they have ways you can help.
Is that a politician? I thought it was a poster of a scientist or artist he liked (I'm an ignorant European)
I was wondering about the order of names on my ballot too. Thanks for sharing Hank! I wonder if my state has something similar!
Going to vote today in person. Living in a hyper gerrymandered red state makes me not trust mail in ballots.
That's fair. I moved to Oregon a couple years ago and if it weren't for the fact that EVERYONE votes by mail I too would be sus of the process.
Not a US citizen here. Could you please explain, how voting in person helps to avoid gerrymandering? Are you assigned to a district depending on whether you vote in person or by mail?
Watch out, that sounds like election denial.
I completely trust the mail-in ballot process in Colorado, but I do not trust the USPS. I hand-deliver mine to the ballot box every year.
Eye-opening to learn about the 5% advantage for top choice. I wonder why. Does the ordering alter voters views? Are we drawn towards ticking the first box of any list? would that include food ordered off a menu? It opens so many questions!
I think even if you go in trying to be neutral, if you click on one person's website first and connect to them first, there is a slightly higher burden of proof on the second candidate.
Go vote!
You’ve played right into my lifelong scheme to creepily stalk someone who lives close, but not too close, to Hank Green.
i hated hearing "life isn't fair" as a kid. like, why not? why arent we working towards making it more fair?
Good to uncover the mystery of order. Thanks for sharing the journey!
It's not about trust, Hank. You didn't trust it when you saw your ballot, you looked into it! That's the key. Looking for evidence, and understanding how to evaluate different types of evidence
This illustrates nicely how if there is actually a problem with electoral procedures people can notice (notice that the person 1st in the list gets a little bump in votes across many elections) and work to correct the problem detected. And this results in non-controversial straightforward policy changes.
Whereas if you go looking for problems when you candidate loses and try to cook up a scheme to correct the problem, you are tempted to cook up a scheme to try to solve the problem of your candidates losing, not so much actually detected problems at the polls.
I have worked as a poll clerk in several Canadian elections, I'm not sure we've ever implemented a solution to the priority of candidates listed on the ballots. I feel like it is usually in alphabetical order (checking yeah at least provincially). Which does seem somewhat of an oversight. Another win for Aaron Aardvark, first in the alphabet last in fair play.
One election I was working on, two candidates had the same name. One was a major political party the other was some fly by night stunt candidate, who clearly chose where to run just to pull this stunt. It lead to very strained and confused clarifications we as elections officials could offer to voters.🙄
"it's a weird way to do it"
No, having 50 individual systems with no central authority all running in parallel and all with different rule-sets is a terrible way to do it.
There is a lot that _is_ terrible about it, but also a lot that _isn't,_ and it's important to take both into account. It's more corruption-resistant than a unified system with a single authority, but it's harder to _assess_ for corruption than a unified system as well. It creates a fertile testing ground for much-needed improvements, but also creates a fertile testing ground for sabotage.
The reality is that if there were a single central system, improvements like the ballot order shuffling in Montana would mostly just not happen, as larger systems are more resistant to change. That's probably part of why Hank couldn't bring himself to condemn the hodgepodge variation outright.
Let's be clear, almost every large voting system in operation right now is _objectively_ bad and in need of clear improvements which have already been well-researched and proven. But those improvements haven't been made largely because those systems are too large and extremely resistant to change.
I also live in your town and wondered about the order, which seemed somewhat random (Tester was first but Harris was in the middle). Thanks for the explainer! i already verified that our mailed ballots were received!
I thought I'd get it finally, but i have been beat. Second
Oh that's interesting. I kinda like it. Here in RED San Bernardino County in So Cal, our ballots have been dropped off in the ballot box, received and counted. I really like that text we can opt to receive. Thank you for this info.
@@thizizliz ughhh also here in a RED California county, Riverside. It sucks out here man. I wanna move to ACTUAL California.