Split Ticket Voting vs. Straight Ticket Voting

Split Ticket- a ballot on which the voter has chosen candidates from different political parties when multiple offices are being decided by a single election. If a state is having an election for many different positions, you might have someone thats voting for different parties. They might vote Democratic for the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican for the U.S. Senate, the Green Party for County Supervisor, and Libertarian Party for Coroner. The different Parties that a person can vote for is the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Green Party, and the Libertarian Party. When people used to go and vote they would get confused if voting split ticket because it had two different colored ballots.

Straight Ticket- practice of voting for candidates of the same party for multiple positions. If someone of the Democratic Party in the U.S. votes for every candidate from President, Senator, Representative, Governor, state legislators and the people running for local government that is a Democrat, they are considered as voting Straight Ticket Voting. It was very common until around the 1960s and 70s. People would vote straight ticket so they would just have to vote for one specific party so that they wouldnt get confused.

Court Cases-
     In Melchior v. Todman, the court found that a voter who voted for seven or more candidate be counted as a vote for the indicated straight party ticket and disregarded it as attempted vote for the individual candidates whose names were marked, was "an arbitrary and invalid imposition of legislative preference where the voter has failed to indicate his ovrn." Melchior argued that the people who counted the votes only took the votes for the specific party and not for any of the others a person voted for.

Current Event- A recent example of split-ticket voting in the United States is the 2004 elections in Montana, where Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brian Schweitzer was elected governor 50.4% to 46.0%, while incumbent Republican President George W. Bush simultaneously defeated Democrat John Kerry 59% to 39% in the state. This suggests that a large number of people voted split-tickets, selecting a Republican presidential candidate by a large margin while also selecting a Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate.

My Opinion- Since I cant vote yet its not in my mind what party I will join or what kind of voting I will be doing. I like though that you dont just have to stick to one party. I like the idea that you can vote for another party that your not really set on. It gives you independence.

Questions- What is it like to vote split ticket? Mr. Griffis what kind of voting do you vote or what party do you vote for?




    







Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-ticket_voting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight-ticket_voting
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