Talk:2008 California's 12th congressional district special election

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California Low‑importance

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This is a historical article, not a daily tally sheet.
If someone drops out or loses, do not erase them; rather, refer to them as having run and lost, dropped out, etc.

From Peterson[edit]

I won't edit this article, but if anyone considers it relevant, the campaign site for Kevin Peterson is http://www.kdpeterson.net/congress2008/ Kevinpet (talk) 20:33, 1 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Citable Source[edit]

The only source on the original version of this page is an article about Lantos dying, there is nothing in that article about the special election.--Dr who1975 (talk) 19:22, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Robert Brickell-Viagra?[edit]

Should a write-in candidate who receives zero votes be included in the final results? I'm not asking this to be flip; I edit a lot of politics-related articles, and wind up posting a lot of electoral data in the same format as the one used in this article. I have yet to come across a write-in candidate with zero votes in an article I was updating, but it could easily happen (I've included several write-in candidates with just two votes). Obviously, the person who included the electoral data for this Special Election thinks it was appropriate to include a write-in candidate with zero votes, and I can respect that opinion...but I'd like further input on the question. If anyone does provide an answer to my question, the best thing to do for all concerned would be to post your answer both here, and to my personal Talk page. Thank you. KevinOKeeffe (talk) 08:08, 4 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In the state of California a write-in candidate must have previously registered as such with the Secretary of State. Here is the list of certified write-in candidates (and Robert Brickell-Viagra and Kevin Peterson are the only ones). So if the registered as a candidate I think they should be included regardless of how many votes he or she got (or didn't get). – Zntrip 19:10, 4 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, Robert is in the list of certified write-in candidates, but he's not in the Special Election Results referenced in the Election box, presumably because he got zero votes. A reporter called the phone number given in the certified list, which is in area code 415 (San Francisco) while the address is in San Diego, and it was "a nice but befuddled gent whose name had nothing to do with Viagra and who didn't know anything about it". So it appears someone entered the name as a joke. I think the proper Wikipedian thing to do is to follow the refs: leave the name in the "Candidates" section, but leave it out of the Election box. – Davemck (talk) 02:37, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I see no reason to not include his name in the results. If we include him in the list of candidates we have to include him in the results. Not doing so would create confusion. It's not a stretch for a reader to wounder how many votes he got. Since he didn't get any we should show that in the results, not just exclude him completely. – Zntrip 04:10, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Then you need to provide a reliable source that he got zero votes. – Davemck (talk) 05:38, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No votes were reported for him and he was an official write-in candidate. Therefore he got zero votes. This has nothing to do with sources. – Zntrip 07:13, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]