Candidates draw for Nov. 7 ballot order

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press

On Monday, Candidates for both the Copperas Cove city council and CCISD board of trustees drew for positions on the Nov. 7 election ballot.
For Copperas Cove city council Place 7, incumbent Jack Smith and Latisha Walton will be on the ballot in November.
Walton drew position 1 for the ballot, and Smith will be listed in position 2. Place 6 incumbent Vonya Hart is the lone candidate for that office.
For the CCISD board of trustees, Place 6 is currently held by John Gallen, who was first elected in November 2020. He faces Carl “Moose” Smith for the position.
Smith drew position 1 and will be listed first on the CCISD ballot, and thus Gallen will be listed on position 2.
Place 7 on the Copperas Cove Independent School District board of trustees will see a return board member, with Jeff Gorres being the lone filer. Incumbent Dr. Karen Harrison did not file for reelection.
Cities and other governmental entities which elect officials used a “random” draw to determine order of the ballot.
Candidates – or their designees – draw for a position on the ballot, and candidates aren’t simply listed alphabetically, because some studies have shown that ballot order can sometimes give a candidate an “edge” over another.
According to MIT’s Election Lab., all states have laws that mandate the order in which candidates appear on the ballot. If the order in which candidates appear on the ballot influences election outcomes, then these laws will advantage some candidates over others, whether this advantage is due to incumbency, party, or alphabetical order.
Concern over the advantage presumably conveyed by “ballot-order effects” has led some states to require names to be randomly listed on the ballot.
Early voting starts on Oct. 23 for general election races. Also on the ballot for November will be proposed amendments to the city charter, along with some state propositions.