No write-ins allowed… Pawlenty Excluded
Wednesday’s TwinCities.com St. Paul Pioneer Press featured Republican Senate District 65 St. Paul precinct caucuses with a surprise visit by DFL Mayor Melvin Carter. What the article did not cover was the fact that the gubernatorial straw ballot only contained the names of declared candidates and provided no write-in opportunity allegedly per party rules.
Any write-in vote would be considered a spoiled ballot and not counted. The only option for the Pawlenty supporters would be to vote undecided if they wanted their vote to count. Nonetheless, votes were written in for Pawlenty. The chair, Mitch Berg, said he would forward them but thought the party would reject them.
This brings up the question of whether the Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot again. If Senate 65 serves as a microcosm for the real interest of party loyalists, then the votes for Pawlenty and “undecided” equaled those votes for Jeff Johnson.
Was their straw poll really a straw man?
Bob Smith 3rd
Founder
Gopher State Politics Institute
St. Paul, MN
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