Given that the odds of a New Yorker casting the deciding vote for president are 1.9 billion to 1, I tend not to take voting too seriously. Even if Bob Barr somehow triples the results of the last Libertarian presidential candidate, that would only give him about 1% of the electorate, so I’m even that convinced that voting sends an important message.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a passionate Libertarian activist, and I think it’s very important to run principled Libertarian candidates who can communicate an uncompromising freedom message when people are most likely to listen. It’s just that I think their job is done by election day. I still vote, but it’s for the same high-minded reason that I moon Mike Bloomberg’s townhouse whenever I’ve had too much to drink on the upper east side. And I expect it to be just as effective.
I always vote only for Libertarian candidates. This year there were two Libertarians on my ballot — Bob Barr for president and Isaiah Matos for U.S. Congress, 14th District — and I proudly pulled the lever for each of them. (Actually, the vote for Barr was really a vote for myself and others, since I’m a candidate for presidential elector.)
There were a lot of other offices on the ballot where no Libertarian candidate was listed. In those races, I always write in a candidate. I refuse to be pressured into giving even a symbolic affirmation to some statist idiot just because I’m only given a choice of statist idiots. And although some states require write-in candidates to be registered, in New York you can write in whoever you want, and their name will be tabulated in the official results.
(Many New Yorkers don’t know how to cast a write in vote. On the far left side of the city’s antiquated voting machines, there is a column of little metal sliding windows. There’s a button at the top of the column. Hold down the button, and you will be able to slide open the metal windows, revealing paper fields where you write in your candidate’s name. There’s usually a little pencil affixed to the left wall of the voting booth for write-in purposes.)
So, without further ado, the rest of my votes were as follows:
- Justices of the Supreme Court (select any 4): Alana Lesczynski, Sara Lesczynski, Benjamin Lesczynski, Dawn Fox (These are my three kids and my wife, respectively. I brought my daughters into the voting booth with me, and they were very excited to see me write in their names. My 4-year-old Sara asked me what she would do as judge. I told her she probably wouldn’t get enough votes and should work on her concession speech.)
- Surrogate: Mark Axinn (vice chairman of the LPNY; secretary/treasurer of the Manhattan Libertarian Party)
- Judge of the Civil Court – County: Ron Moore (chairman of the Manhattan Libertarian Party)
- State Senate, District 25: Joseph Dobrian (longtime MLP activist; likely Libertarian candidate for mayor in 2009)
- Assembly, District 64: Jak Karako (perennial MLP candidate and hardcore activist, now living in New Jersey)
After I left the voting booth I realized that I forgot to vote on the proposal to amend the state constitution to give additional civil service credit for service in the armed forces. It’s just as well. Who frigging cares if one part of the government gives credit for service to another part?