Legislative Initiative: Abolish Straight Ticket Voting

[Imperial]

I am sick and tired of the straight ticket device. In South Carolina, Alvin Greene won 30% of the vote- a Green Party candidate who outspent him 5:1 and actively campaigned received only 10%.

Similarly, in Texas Republican Rick Perry won in a landslide despite widespread conservative discontent.

One thing that I think is contributing to the mess we are in is straight ticket voting. It encourages voters to not have to educate themselves on the ballot. Rather than making critical decisions, they check one little box and go home happy.

But I don't want to take this sitting down. I want to change it. I don't see this really changing in Texas very much, but I am going to organize a fight anyway. I know the perfect Democrat who will sponsor it in the House who previously fought for ballot access reform, but I need to find a really good Republican who would be willing to as well. My representative is Larry Taylor, one of the highest in House leadership who is sure to not like the idea.

In addition, we need a companion piece in the Senate. If anybody is interested in helping out with this in Texas, please message me. The necessary tasks:

1) Draft a piece of legislation
2) Make arguments for why Republicans would like this legislation
3) Make arguments for why Democrats would like ths legislation
4) Recruit a group of legislative sponsors in House and Senate
5) All out push to get it to committee

Legislators just started submitting legislation today in the Texas House. Does anybody know when the window of opportunity closes for the upcoming session?

[Maximus]

How would you do this? Take off the (D) or (R) next to candidates names?

[Icymudpuppy]

How would you do this? Take off the (D) or (R) next to candidates names?

That would be best. Get rid of the party label. That way people would have to actually learn about who is running for what.

[Brian4Liberty]

I am sick and tired of the straight ticket device.

Are you just talking about the "straight ticket" button on machine voting? I don't think I've seen that option on paper ballots.

[K466]

Interesting. I wrote in my blog about the folly of straight ticket voting (http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978656974). Vote straight ticket if you like being sheeple.

[Zippyjuan]

You would probably have to ban political parties and that won't happen.

Why should it be illegal for somebody to vote for candidates from just one party if they agree with that party on the issues? Telling people who they can and can't vote for gets into some very dangerous territory.

[Maximus]

You would probably have to ban political parties and that won't happen.

Why should it be illegal for somebody to vote for candidates from just one party if they agree with that party on the issues? Telling people who they can and can't vote for gets into some very dangerous territory.

If this is simply a mechanism which does not list the (D) or (R) on the ballot than I can completely support this. Nothing would stop people from campaigning as Republicans or Democrats, their commercials and signage can still point out that they belong to a certain party. On the ballot though they would not be listed as such.

I think this would be great at weeding out those who have no idea what they are voting for but simply vote for someone because of the political party they belong to.

[Imperial]

You would probably have to ban political parties and that won't happen.

Why should it be illegal for somebody to vote for candidates from just one party if they agree with that party on the issues? Telling people who they can and can't vote for gets into some very dangerous territory.


How would you do this? Take off the (D) or (R) next to candidates names?

If this is simply a mechanism which does not list the (D) or (R) on the ballot than I can completely support this.

I should clarify. Many states, including both South Carolina and Texas, have an option when you vote to vote 'straight party'. This is on both machine and paper ballots. This would not actually remove party designation; instead, it means that you would have to fill in a choice in every race if you want to vote in said race instead of just checking a box at the top and being done.

I am looking at writing a piece of legislation for Texas to accomplish the removal of this option.

[JamesButabi]

Are you just talking about the "straight ticket" button on machine voting? I don't think I've seen that option on paper ballots.

It is actually the first option on most paper ballots. You can either connect the line to vote straight party, or continue on and fill out each one individually.

I absolutely agree with the OP. This is a huge benefit in shoring up the left / right false paradigm. If we ever want to stop that, this would be a logical first step.

[oyarde]

I would like to see straight vote eliminated .

[libertythor]

I am all for getting rid of "straight party" buttons or bubbles. Make the voter look at each race individually! Besides, the straight button encourages voters not to look at the local nonpartisan races and propositions. That is bad juju.

[Zippyjuan]

I have never seen any "party line" voting options at any of the elections I have voted in. I could certainly see where both major parties would like to have this option.

[Brian4Liberty]

It is actually the first option on most paper ballots. You can either connect the line to vote straight party, or continue on and fill out each one individually.

Don't remember ever seeing that option, but I've heard of it. Maybe they have never used it in my counties. I agree that it should be eliminated. People should go through the entire ballot.

[payme_rick]

Why should it be illegal for somebody to vote for candidates from just one party if they agree with that party on the issues? Telling people who they can and can't vote for gets into some very dangerous territory.

It shouldn't be illegal "for somebody to vote for candidates from just one party if they agree with that party on the issues", and removing the straight-ticket option would not make that illegal...

As for "telling people who they can and can't vote for gets into some very dangerous territory", I agree... But again, removing the sraight-ticket option would not tell people who they can and cannot vote for...

[BuddyRey]

Also, I think there should really be a nationwide push to have state and federal candidates elected through Instant Runoff voting. When we can cast our ballots for the candidates we really like without concern for "wasted vote" scenarios, many more minor-party candidates will be successful.

[cindy25]

1) make local elections non-partisan
2) have real run-offs six weeks after the general
3) make ballot access far easier

[james1906]

I would love to get rid of it, but it ain't gonna happen.

[Imperial]

Also, I think there should really be a nationwide push to have state and federal candidates elected through Instant Runoff voting. When we can cast our ballots for the candidates we really like without concern for "wasted vote" scenarios, many more minor-party candidates will be successful.

That is my project in Minnesota. Along with trying to get Gary Johnson to speak at my college.

[justinc.1089]

1) make local elections non-partisan
2) have real run-offs six weeks after the general
3) make ballot access far easier


1. I agree, and I never really understood why local elections had party affiliations anyway.

2. I believe our governor run-off election between Haley and Barrett here in SC was only 2 weeks after Haley missed getting 50% by 1%....

If most run-offs are longer than 6 weeks, I agree they should be shortened to 6 weeks. I think 3-4 weeks is the ideal amount of time, because it does not push a run-off so far off that it will cause more trouble for voters, but still allows enough time for a candidate to campaign if that's needed.

In SC's run-off situation time for campaigning before the run-off really wasn't needed because most of SC hated the candidates other than Haley. The only reason she didn't get 50% was because she ran against 3 other candidates.

In fact, everyone was shocked Barrett was stupid enough to run against her after losing so badly to her.

3. Easier???

Really???

With all the stupid people that go vote???

I think voting is already extremely easy anyway... I actually don't see how you could really make it any easier. The only ways I can think of is doubling the number of voting places despite them already being very close to voters, picking up voters and taking them to vote, keeping voting going for a few days or a week, providing pay for a day to let people off from work, and probably some other extremely ridiculous ideas lmao.






I am STRONGLY for eliminating straight ticket voting.

This past election was a perfect example of why straight ticket is HORRIBLE. My brother and I did NOT vote straight ticket for Republicans, even though we both thought we would be only voting for Republicans this election. I had not heard of TWO Libertarians that were running!

I had read about different people running, but I did not look for a sample ballot like I should have ahead of time. But I wisely went through the entire ballot just in case something came up like those Libertarians running.

My grandmother however, simply checked Straight Republican Ticket, and left all happy and proud, and later bragged about just voting Straight Republican, completely ignorant there were better candidates she SHOULD have voted for.

I don't blame myself for her not voting for the Libertarians either because she is stuck in a Democrat vs. Republican mindset far too deeply to vote for a Libertarian, and one of the many reasons is without a doubt Straight Ticket voting.

It helps engrave the left/ right paradigm into peoples' minds, and sneaks in many, many more votes for the Republicans and Democrats that would have went to 3rd parties.

What if I had just hit Straight Republican Ticket instead of going through the entire ballot since I was slack and didn't look at a ballot ahead of time???

- The Republicans would have gained two of my votes and the Liberatarians would have lost two votes that I wanted to go to the Libertarians. Straight Ticket promotes ignorant voting.

[Imperial]

Update:

State Senator Jeff Wentworth, a San Antonio Republican, has filed a bill (http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/11/22/texas-bill-to-abolish-straight-ticket-device-on-ballots/)to eliminate the straight ticket device on Texas ballots. You can read the legislation here (http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=82R&Bill=SB139).

One article after the election commented (http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/08/2615348/straight-ticket-votes-reach-10.html#ixzz16defAcUv) upon the chances of passage of such a bill.


Lawmakers start filing bills this week for next year's legislative session, and state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, already has one written that would abolish straight party voting in Texas.

"It encourages less thoughtful voting," Wentworth said. "It's not really reasonable to expect that either political party has 100 percent of all the better candidates in any race."

Wentworth has filed similar bills in the past. Last session, House Speaker Joe Straus made clear that he supported the idea, but no bill ever came up for a vote. Opposition from the state Democratic and Republican parties was too strong, Wentworth said.

I would assume that if Straus loses the speakership to Paxton or Chisum that the chances of straight ticket voting being abolished would go down, but I am not sure of that. In the short term, the legislation would likely empower moderates and third parties more than any other groups.

The Houston Chronicle also editorialized (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7311700.html) in favor of Wentworth's proposal a couple of days ago.


Texans should ask their legislators to support Wentworth's effort. Punching the straight-ticket button means that voters don't have to pay attention to the individuals on the ballot.

Reflexive partisan voting routinely turns qualified judges of both parties out of office in large counties. The practice is bipartisan; some years more Democrats cast straight-party votes, and in other years more Republicans do it.

This year, the straight-ticket vote in Harris County bolstered a Republican sweep in 59 countywide judicial races without regard to the quality of candidates.

Partisan voting ousted solid Republican judges in Harris County in 2008.

The same phenomenon was on display when the stellar district clerk, Loren Jackson, went down to defeat at the hands of political neophyte Chris Daniels, despite endorsements for Jackson from both liberal and conservative groups. And because nonpartisan city of Houston propositions were at the end of the ballot, huge numbers of voters didn't bother to cast ballots on important issues like drainage fees and red-light cameras.

Although Republican and Democratic apparatchiks opposed his legislation in previous sessions, Wentworth accurately noted of straight-ticket balloting, "It's not even in the parties' interest." The lawmaker cited Republican State Board of Education candidate Tony Cunningham as an example of the danger that looms with straight-ticket voting.

Cunningham won the GOP nomination in SBOE District 3 despite widespread reporting about his inability to discuss the issues and his dreadful lack of credentials.

I am working on organizing people to 1) meet with their state representatives and state senators to lobby in support of the legislation and 2) if that is not feasible, to write letters to said office-holders. If you want to participate, please PM me.