[LMB] OT: Voting was all-purpose open letter)

[Mandos Mitchinson]

> Well, as it is a secret ballot, and (at the moment) cast on 
> paper, you can always leave it blank. Our real problem is the 
> "donkey vote": 
> people who just number 1,2,3 etc down the ballot.

New Zealand has a similar proble with it's local body elections. There is
very little in the way of campaigning meaning you either give your votes to
a specific party or judge the person based on a few lines of blurb in the
pamphlet you revieve. (All voting is by Mail). 

Most people simply select the top five resulting in cases where the council
or Board of a DHB are all made up of last nakes from the first few letters
in the alphabet. Here are the names of the Board members from on of NZ's
DHB's. 

Aitken
Bowkett
Bradwell
Dady
Douglas
Faulkner
Gotlieb
Ritchie

Only one name out of the list is not from the first 7 letters of the
alphabet. 

Mandos
/s