Have you ever wondered how the ballot order for candidates gets picked? Well in Philly it’s quite simple – and not exactly glamorous.
Each state has its own procedure to select the candidate order on the ballot. It can vary from alphabetical order to randomized letters. In Pennsylvania, state law requires a random drawing to assign the position.
Back in March, the Philadelphia City Commissioners announced the return of a “coffee can of destiny” for another election. The Horn & Hardart can, a relic of the past when automats were more common eateries (although they may be having a revival), serves as the impartial vessel for the ballot order selection process. Candidates randomly select a numbered ball from the can, determining their assigned slot for the ballot.
The MIT Election Lab said research has shown the ballot order effects are as you’d expect: If a bunch of names are listed, your eye is going to be drawn to the first name you see, reading left-to-right or top-to-bottom. If you have no idea who some of these candidates even are, you might fill your bubble with whatever name you saw first.
Based on this sample ballot, we can see that under the Democratic ticket, Will Braveman got the top slot for judge of Court of Common Pleas, Sherrie Cohen for Municipal Court, and Pat Dugan for district attorney. Meanwhile on the Republican ticket, Marie Battista has the first slot for Superior Court and Matt Wolford for Commonwealth Court.
The best way to get around this game of chance is to really put your name and face out there, which often means fundraising as much as possible in order to fund your ads around the city.
Another point to note is that Mike Huff, who was running for judge on both the Municipal and Common Pleas Courts, has since been disqualified. Votes for him in the Democratic primary won’t count, but he’s still listed on the ballot right under Braveman for Court of Common Pleas. If people aren’t aware that he’s ineligible, he still might get votes sent his way because of the visibility.
We’ll see once the results are in how those at the top of the ballots performed. Because if you’re unsatisfied with those outcomes, you could probably blame it all on the coffee can of destiny.
