overvote

plural overvotes

1. USgovernmentA case in which a voter has marked a ballot for more choices than allowed by the rules

   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.

   2001, Richard A. Posner, Breaking the Deadlock, →ISBN, page 78

2. businessA case in which more votes are cast in a voter's name than allowed under the rules

   Overvotes are a relatively common phenomenon for shares held in a street name.

   1978, Martin Lipton et al., Takeovers and Freezeouts, →ISBN, page 17

present singular third person overvotes · participle present overvoting · participle past overvoted · past overvoted

1. USgovernmentTo spoil a ballot by marking it for more choices than allowed by the rules

   […] a poll worker can manually override the program and accept the ballot, even though it has been overvoted or undervoted.

   2005, United States Government Accountability Office, Elections, →ISBN, page 10

2. businessTo cast more votes than allowed under the rules

   I know a great deal of difficulty ensues, and frequently brokers' shares are overvoted.

   1955, Stock Market Study, page 1429

3. obsoleteTo outvote or overrule

   Caleb and Joshua would have been overvoted by almost six hundred thousand Israelites; […]

   1653, William Jenkyn, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude, published 1839, page 119