Straight Party

[canadyjd]

In my locale, local offices (city council, school boards, water district, the county board of supervisors, sheriff, and conty recorder/tax collector) are "non-partisan". So, there voting a straight party ticket doesn't affect them.

I think that is true in my area as well for city counsels and school boards.

peace to you

 

[Alcott]

Straight party as opposed to queer party?

 

[rlvaughn]

I was just thinking - suppose there is an elderly person - and it is extremly hard for him to punch 10 different holds - so Straight voting makes it eaiser on him?

Thoughts?

If I researched the candidates and know I'm voting for all of one party anyways, then what difference does it make?

It's not like there's a moral superiority to marking ten ovals versus marking one if the result is the same.

To be clear, I am not asserting that there is some principle of moral wrong in selecting a straight ticket option. What I believe is that having that option ultimately does more harm than good, by promoting that the electorate be uninformed about the entire slate of candidates. An informed voter can research a slate of candidates and if that person decides to vote for the candidates of just one party, having the single election doesn't do anything but simplify the process. (Though It might possibly send a message of party support to the party that doesn't exist in the way they imagine. Not sure about this.) In my experience, the majority of voters don't do their homework, and only know or even care about a select few they want to elect (maybe even just one).

 

[rlvaughn]

In Missouri, years ago, there was straight party option. When I first started voting, I voted straight party and then voted individual candidates as well. I later learned doing that voids the ballot. It didn’t count.

Maybe that’s why it was dropped.

peace to you

I used to be an election judge here in our precinct (in Texas), but "retired" many years ago. I think, if I remember correctly, that back then a ballot voted in such a manner was kicked out and had to be counted by hand, disregarding the straight party selection and just counting the individual candidate votes.

 

[Salty]

To be clear, I am not asserting that there is some principle of moral wrong in selecting a straight ticket option. What I believe is that having that option ultimately does more harm than good, by promoting that the electorate be uninformed about the entire slate of candidates. An informed voter can research a slate of candidates and if that person decides to vote for the candidates of just one party, having the single election doesn't do anything but simplify the process. (Though It might possibly send a message of party support to the party that doesn't exist in the way they imagine. Not sure about this.) In my experience, the majority of voters don't do their homework, and only know or even care about a select few they want to elect (maybe even just one).

Excellent points!

 

[Roy]

I was just thinking - suppose there is an elderly person - and it is extremly hard for him to punch 10 different holds - so Straight voting makes it eaiser on him?

Thoughts?

From one old man to another, punching holes in paper ain't no problem fer me. What about you, Salty? Does it give you muscle cramps?

 

[canadyjd]

I used to be an election judge here in our precinct (in Texas), but "retired" many years ago. I think, if I remember correctly, that back then a ballot voted in such a manner was kicked out and had to be counted by hand, disregarding the straight party selection and just counting the individual candidate votes.

Election judge? Thanks for serving where most will not.

Did you ever see anything like this election?

peace to you

 

[rlvaughn]

Election judge? Thanks for serving where most will not.

Thank you. I was sort of guilted into becoming an election judge to begin with. Our county voted primarily Republican in state and national elections, but our local candidates (out of past tradition, I suppose) were solidly Democrat. (This is back in the early 1980s.) Most everyone voted in the Democratic Primary because of that, and then would vote for whoever they wanted to in the general election. A close family member who is what we call a "yellow dog" Democrat constantly ranted about Republicans who voted in the Democratic Primary, and after due consideration of this I decided to start voting in the Republican Primary since I liked their platform better than the Democratic one. At that time our precinct in the primaries voted about 95% Democrat and 5% Republican, and voting Republican cut one off from being a deciding vote in any local races that had more than one candidate. The election judge for the Republican Party for our precinct was a widow of my Mother's cousin, and she talked me into helping her with the election, then after a few years wanted to retire and talked me into taking the election judge position. She pled so pitifully I could not resist! So I worked the elections for about 25 years (would have to think about that a bit to get an accurate number). I enjoyed the experience overall, and learned a lot. I began to be somewhat disappointed with Republican politicians not living up to what they claimed to be (or what I had thought they claimed to be for, smaller government, less spending, etc.). When the county went to electronic voting and consolidated several precincts into one location, I saw the opportunity to have a decent reason to "bail out" and have not worked an election since that time.

Did you ever see anything like this election?

Nope, never. I will add that our precinct was a rural district in which most of us knew one another -- and many were related -- and we did not have many bad experiences. Once in awhile some voter would get mad about something -- usually when they were told they were supposed to vote at another location! The Democratic election judge was a distant cousin, and we got along just fine and never had any problems working together (we always worked together in the general election, and even held the primaries in the same building). I think things have changed greatly since those days.

 

[canadyjd]

Thank you. I was sort of guilted into becoming an election judge to begin with. Our county voted primarily Republican in state and national elections, but our local candidates (out of past tradition, I suppose) were solidly Democrat. (This is back in the early 1980s.) Most everyone voted in the Democratic Primary because of that, and then would vote for whoever they wanted to in the general election. A close family member who is what we call a "yellow dog" Democrat constantly ranted about Republicans who voted in the Democratic Primary, and after due consideration of this I decided to start voting in the Republican Primary since I liked their platform better than the Democratic one. At that time our precinct in the primaries voted about 95% Democrat and 5% Republican, and voting Republican cut one off from being a deciding vote in any local races that had more than one candidate. The election judge for the Republican Party for our precinct was a widow of my Mother's cousin, and she talked me into helping her with the election, then after a few years wanted to retire and talked me into taking the election judge position. She pled so pitifully I could not resist! So I worked the elections for about 25 years (would have to think about that a bit to get an accurate number). I enjoyed the experience overall, and learned a lot. I began to be somewhat disappointed with Republican politicians not living up to what they claimed to be (or what I had thought they claimed to be for, smaller government, less spending, etc.). When the county went to electronic voting and consolidated several precincts into one location, I saw the opportunity to have a decent reason to "bail out" and have not worked an election since that time.
Nope, never. I will add that our precinct was a rural district in which most of us knew one another -- and many were related -- and we did not have many bad experiences. Once in awhile some voter would get mad about something -- usually when they were told they were supposed to vote at another location! The Democratic election judge was a distant cousin, and we got along just fine and never had any problems working together (we always worked together in the general election, and even held the primaries in the same building). I think things have changed greatly since those days.

All very interesting. Yes, there used to be conservative dems and repubs that wanted to control spending.

Hard to find any of those any more.

peace to you

 

[church mouse guy]

I almost always vote straight Republican. Now and then, I abstain in a particular race or even vote for an individual Democrat.

Indiana has been a strong Republican state since 1860 although Democrats sometimes win the state.

Generally, the GOP has good candidates in Indiana. As Hoosier Kin Hubbard noted almost a century ago, we’d all like to vote for the best man but he is seldom a candidate. He also observed that every now and then an innocent man is sent to the state legislature.

 

[church mouse guy]

One Hoosier farmer told some easterner city slicker that he always voted for the man not the party: Coolidge, Hoover, Landon, Wilkie, Dewey...