Maybe We Do Elections Better In Britain….

November

25

by admin // in Elections

0 comments

We’ve got the council by-election in Rayleigh Central ward next week, so it’s a good time to mention some of the paperwork that has to be completed to stand as a candidate….

If you want to stand for election to the District Council , the helpful people at the council election office will send you a pack with all the necessary forms.

The first thing to do is to get 10 people who live in the council ward concerned to sign your nomination paper. The next thing is for the candidate to sign another form confirming that they do wish to stand and are eligible to do so…. Then you have to get someone from your political party to sign a form confirming that you are a candidate for that party.

Simple enough, isn’t it? However it seems in America they have made it even simpler. The candidate doesn’t have to sign anything, the party simply sends in the name to the council. What could possibly go wrong?

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Well, in the small town of Derby, Connecticut, they’ve just had a local election. The Democrats chose a 72-year-old chap called James R. Butler to be one of their candidates for the town’s “Board of Apportionment and Taxation” which is their version of a town council. And James Butler came top in the poll, with 1,156 votes. Only trouble was, the name that was on the ballot was that of the chap’s 46-year-old son, a former fire chief called James J. Butler, who apparently lives in the same road as his Dad but doesn’t share his interest in local politics.

So the wrong chap’s been elected, and apparently it’s going to be tricky to sort this one out.

Of course, if candidates had to sign a nomination paper, as they do in this country, this could never have happened….

The New Haven Register has the full story here. One of the comments below the story is a bit harsh:

Folks we really dont mind Jim the chief to sit on the board. We would like to request a math test before he does. Oh an the board may require a big buffet before the meetings start.

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