Call it the James Franco problem.
Late in the balloting for the Oscar nominations, news broke of inappropriate behavior by Franco towards young women who studied acting with him or appeared in his films.
Some Oscar voters who had already sent in their ballots for Franco’s work in “The Disaster Artist,” wanted to change their votes and drop Franco. But the motion picture academy has rules—once you turn in your ballot, that’s it. You can’t change it.
That’s a bad policy – for the Oscars and for elections about real candidates and ballot measures.
Especially now that we no longer have Election Days in California. We have election months, during which most people vote by mail or in pre-voting locations.
In so doing they lock in votes. And they can’t change those votes when news breaks late about a candidate. They’re stuck.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The law could and should be changed to permit people to send in a second ballot—and have that supersede the first ballot. A number of countries permit it.
Yes, that would create an additional headache for California’s counties, which conduct voting. They’d have to check if they received more than one ballot from a person, and make sure they count only the most recent. There would be costs involved.
But the costs are worth it in cases where late-breaking information makes it clear that a candidate is not fit to sere.