POLITICAL: Election suck and “special elections” are a boondoggle

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

https://patch.com/new-jersey/southbrunswick/s/jslig/special-election-to-replace-mikie-sherrill-set-here-s-what-happens-next?user_email=6977bb79afc18d89968a6a0494d4b398a8e9e97df94217a36edb8fcfd93b518e&user_email_md5=cff302c94eb4f6351922680bba576fdd&lctg=512c02461e240a9c

Special Election To Replace Mikie Sherrill Set: Here’s What Happens Next

  • ​New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has set an election date to replace Mikie Sherrill in Congress.

Eric Kiefer, Patch Staff
Posted Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 10:56 am ET
Updated Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 11:06 am ET

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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has set an election date to replace Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill in Congress.

On Friday, Murphy issued a writ of election to fill a vacancy in the U.S. House of Representatives for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. A special primary election will take place on Feb. 5. A special general election will be held on April 16.

*** end quote ***

Boy, do I HATE elections.

Not only because a minority of those eligible to vote bother —  AND I understand why!  As a “red” voter in a “blue” state, my voting is hopeless —  and with all the fraud and “non-citizens” voting, it is a foregone conclusion who will “win”!

So until we have voter id requirements, we are never going to have an honest election!  AT ANY LEVEL!!!

“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” — Emma Goldman ― often incorrectly attributed to American humorist Mark Twain ― but very very true imho!

“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.” – Oscar Ameringer

“It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.” — attributed to Joseph Stalin

“As long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it. say?” — attributed to William M. “Boss” Tweed in Thomas Nast cartoon, 7 October 1871).

Now onto “Special Elections” and “Ranked Choice Voting”.

Special elections, like here in the Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerzee this year, occurred when a sitting Congress critter was elected Governor.  This could easily be avoided if there was a rule that a sitting legislator is ineligible to run for another office.  And, for death or disability, then let the State’s legislature pick someone (from the phone book, voter rolls, someone who voted, or the unemployment office) to fill out the term.  BINGO!  No need for “special elections”.

Ranked Choice Voting, aka Instant Runoff, is necessary to prevent “spoilers” in the current scheme of “First Across The Finish Line” (aka, winner take all).  In this case, voters would rank their candidates in preferential order.  Then, in tabulation, if no one has a majority, then the lowest ranking candidate is discarded and the votes are recalculated. Voters for that lowest ranking candidate, who expressed a preference, would have their votes added to their preferred candidate. Voters for that lowest ranking candidate, who did NOT express a preference, would have their votes discarded. The recalculation would continue until a candidate has a majority or only one candidate was left; a plurality!

Seems simple enough to enact and add in some “life sentences” for cheaters and we COULD have honest elections.  Note: if we arrest low level cheaters, then, with plea bargains, we can, just like with drug dealers, work our way up the chain of corruption.  

Sigh!  Fat chance in hell!

Of course, I’d prefer if voting was restricted to taxpayers, or veterans.

“A veteran is someone who at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to the ‘United States of America’ for an amount of ‘up to and including my life.'” -Anonymous

Remember Heinlein’s Starship Troopers’ universe? One does not merely have the right to be a citizen and vote by virtue of what Heinlein called the mere accident of birth; rather, one has to earn this right through Federal Service that tested one’s ability and willingness to sacrifice for the greater good of the polity. Bet not a lot of vets would vote for all the undeclared wars the USA has been in since WW2?

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