overvote

English

Etymology

over- +‎ vote

Noun

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, →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, →ISBN, page 17:
      Overvotes are a relatively common phenomenon for shares held in a street name.

Verb

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, →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, 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, published 1839, page 119:
      Caleb and Joshua would have been overvoted by almost six hundred thousand Israelites; […]

See also

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