California declares a new alphabet!

[Barbara Need]

At 5:35 -0400 12/08/03, Frank Abate wrote:
>>From today's NY Times:
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>August 12, 2003
>How to Run a Recall Election: Begin by Juggling the Alphabet
>By DEAN E. MURPHY
>
>
>SACRAMENTO, Aug. 11 — Even the alphabet is getting an official makeover as
>part of the California recall election. Put the ABC's out of mind. It now
>goes something like this (when singing, the familiar melody is still O.K.):
>R, W, Q, O, J, M, V, A, H, B, S, G, Z, X, N, T, C, I, E, K, U, P, D, Y, F
>and L.

.......

>Using the current list of 96 qualified candidates, for example, the first
>name on the ballot would be David Laughing Horse Robinson, an artist from
>the Central Valley. He would be followed by Ned Fenton Roscoe, a Libertarian
>from Napa, and Daniel C. Ramirez, a Democrat from Imperial County.

So the sorting continues to be according to the list (RO coming
before RA and ROS before ROB).

........

>Under the rotation system, the top name on the ballot falls to the bottom in
>each successive district, so that each of 80 candidates on the ballot gets
>the best billing in one district. So keeping with the example of the 96
>candidates, Mr. Robinson would drop to No. 96 in the second assembly
>district, also in rural northern California, and so on.

The Chicago Tribune reports the rotation slightly differently. They
claim that ALL names beginning with R will drop to the bottom of the
ballot for the second district. Since there are 80 districts and only
26 letters, this would result in  three or four districts having the
same ballot.

Barbara Need
UChicago--Linguistics