Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

I'm posting this because I thought it might be interesting to linguists
to see some "real time word morphing"...
In Texas last November, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs ran as the Republican
candidate to replace disgraced congressman Tom DeLay.  Due to the DeLay
legal stuff, she had to run as a write-in candidate.  It's very
interesting to get a glimpse (thanks to the Houston Press) into how the
Texans handled that!

The following is from here:

http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/2006-11-23/news/feature_full.html

J.R. Perez of the Fort Bend County elections office says voters were
pretty inventive in spelling Sekula-Gibbs's name. Fort Bend is only one
of four counties in District 22, but the list of spellings that were
accepted as write-in votes (by a bipartisan panel who ruled on voters'
intent) is 28 pages long.

Voters cast their write-in ballots for, among others: Kelly Segula
Gibbs, Snelly Gibbr, Schikulla Gibbs, Sheila Gibbs, Shelly Schulla
Gibbs, Shelly Gibkula and, by someone who obviously never wanted the
joy of using the machine to end, ShelleySkulaGibbsssss.

The name "Sekula" was spelled as Sektula, Sukla, Sequila, Sedoko and
Sedoka (by puzzle fans?), Meklua, Sekluda and Shecola.

One voter couldn't be bothered, just putting in SSG. (It counted.)
Another, for some reason, entered Sekula Smith.

Another voter entered "Shelle Sekula Fibbs," which might have been a
hidden political message. Not so hidden, but counted as a vote just the
same, was "Shelly DraculaCunt Gibs." (We like to imagine the bipartisan
discussion on that entry: "Well, they misspelled the first and last
name, but that's definitely a Shelley vote.")

Even with all the enthusiastic spelling efforts, Sekula-Gibbs lost the
race to Democrat Nick Lampson. She got 42 percent of the vote, though,
and is widely expected to run again in 2008.