overvote

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From over- +‎ vote.

Noun

[edit]

overvote (plural overvotes)

  1. (US politics) A case in which a voter has marked a ballot for more choices than allowed by the rules
    • 2001, Richard A. Posner, Breaking the Deadlock[1], →ISBN, page 78:
      An overvote that took the form of punching Gore's chad and then writing his name (or Lieberman's) in the place for a write-in candidate would unambiguously manifest the voter's intention to vote for Gore.
  2. (business) A case in which more votes are cast in a voter's name than allowed under the rules
    • 1978, Martin Lipton et al., Takeovers and Freezeouts[2], →ISBN, page 17:
      Overvotes are a relatively common phenomenon for shares held in a street name.

Verb

[edit]

overvote (third-person singular simple present overvotes, present participle overvoting, simple past and past participle overvoted)

  1. (US politics) To spoil a ballot by marking it for more choices than allowed by the rules
    • 2005, United States Government Accountability Office, Elections[3], →ISBN, page 10:
      [] a poll worker can manually override the program and accept the ballot, even though it has been overvoted or undervoted.
  2. (business) To cast more votes than allowed under the rules
    • 1955, Stock Market Study[4], page 1429:
      I know a great deal of difficulty ensues, and frequently brokers' shares are overvoted.
  3. (obsolete) To outvote or overrule
    • 1653, William Jenkyn, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude[5], published 1839, page 119:
      Caleb and Joshua would have been overvoted by almost six hundred thousand Israelites; []
[edit]

See also

[edit]