it may be true that candidates whose name appears at the top of the ballot have a better chance of being elected.

New York State believes this, since (as I recall) the order in which a party's candidate appears on the ballot is controlled by the total number of votes for governor that party garnered in the past gubernatorial election. So when George Pataki, Republican, was governor, Republican candidates were listed first. With Spitzer, Democrats should have pride of place at the top of the ballot.

Other parties' candidates are listed again in order by total number of gubernatorial votes. Since candidates can run on several party lines (for voters who want to vote a 'straight ticket') the same candidate can appear several time on the ballot.

I do remember being told to vote for the governor on the Democratic line and not on any of the other party lines so Democratic candidates would appear first on ballots for the next 4 years which might be useful in local elections.

Maybe we should go back to using goat entrails to picking candidates....