> Published Tuesday, May 23, 2000, in the Miami Herald
>
> Write-ins bring virtual democracy
>
> BY STEVE BOUSQUET
>
> It has come to this: Competitive elections for Congress in South Florida
> are now so rare that it's considered cause for celebration when a few
> invisible write-in candidates file for office.
>
> Write-ins cannot possibly win, but they force members of Congress to be on
> the November ballot,
> creating a faux election. For the first time, write-ins surfaced in all 23
> Florida congressional districts.
> Ten of them live in the Keys.
>
> This is no coincidence.
>
> Ray and May Chote, two former Reform Party activists from Marathon, aren't
> wasting away in Margaritaville. They urged their friends to run as
> write-ins, believing that token opposition is better than none.
>
> ``Think of it -- if there is no opposition, there will be no election,''
> Ray Chote wrote in a recruitment
> letter. ``Is this the heritage we want to pass on to future generations? Do
> we wish to tell our
> grandchildren that we were too busy to file a one-page form, thereby losing
> the right to vote?''
>
> Four of the seven members of Congress from South Florida -- Republicans
> Lincoln Diaz-Balart and
> Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democrats Peter Deutsch and Carrie Meek -- have
> write-in opponents this
> time around. Their names are George Maurer, Sheila Mullins, Ed Kopanski and
> Bill Barchers.
>
> Kopanski, 64, a U.S. Navy veteran, sailed with his wife to Key West three
> years ago and liked it so much he stayed. Talking with the Chotes and other
> friends at a marina, he decided to challenge the
> ``monopoly'' of the two major parties -- before he realized that most of
> the voters in Deutsch's 20th
> District are in Broward, a four-hour drive from the Keys.
>
> Believe it or not, this is progress. Two years ago, 18 of the 23 members of
> the Florida congressional
> delegation were elected without opposition.
>
> But it's virtual democracy, giving voters the illusion of a choice where
> there is none. What can a write-in possibly accomplish, other than giving
> incumbents one more excuse to raise more money?
>
> ``I wanted ballot access in every way possible,'' says May Chote, who tried
> to run for Congress in 1998, but fell short of the signatures then needed
> to run. ``They know they haven't got a chance of winning but they wanted to
> express their feelings.''
>
> The point, Chote says, is that incumbents should face the voters, and the
> voters deserve a chance to
> vote for ``none of the above'' if they want.
>
> ``Otherwise, they've inherited these positions for themselves,'' Chote
> says. ``When their names aren't
> on the ballot, nobody can vote. That seems to be about as undemocratic as
> anything can be.''
>
> This is the legacy of a political system of big money, attack ads,
> leadership PACs and
> gerrymandered districts that zigzag across county boundaries.
>
> But this is also the year when term limits will force the biggest house
> cleaning in the Legislature since the chaotic reapportionment of 1967.
>
> The state's new ballot-access law no longer requires minor-party candidates
> to collect voters'
> signatures on petitions.
>
> They, too, can pay a filing fee -- but it's $8,200, a staggeringly high
> figure for anyone without access
> to lobbyists and special interests. As a result, more Reform, Natural Law
> and Libertarian candidates
> are running, and they can reach voters more easily than ever, thanks to
> that electronic equalizer, the Internet.
>
> Yet, in a period of unprecedented economic prosperity, the poverty in our
> political system is aptly symbolized by the futility of a write-in
> candidate: a lonely blank space, reserved for ol' what's-his-name, the
> candidate nobody knows.