Is straight party voting on ballots a problem?

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Texas Gov. Abbot has signed a law that eliminates straight party voting on ballots.
The Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that will end straight-ticket voting beginning with the general election in November.



Texas Democrats sue to keep straight-ticket voting

 

[toobfreak]

Texas Gov. Abbot has signed a law that eliminates straight party voting on ballots.
The Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that will end straight-ticket voting beginning with the general election in November.
Texas Democrats sue to keep straight-ticket voting

Easy enough to get around, but you really have to wonder why the ability to vote every candidate collectively with a single button press along party lines was ever incorporated into voting machines in the first place.

Are people voting for parties or actual individuals?

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Texas Gov. Abbot has signed a law that eliminates straight party voting on ballots.
The Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that will end straight-ticket voting beginning with the general election in November.
Texas Democrats sue to keep straight-ticket voting

Easy enough to get around, but you really have to wonder why the ability to vote every candidate collectively with a single button press along party lines was ever incorporated into voting machines in the first place.

Are people voting for parties or actual individuals?

these days it is the former for sure.

I see no reason to get rid of it, it just hides the obvious.

 

[HappyJoy]

Texas Gov. Abbot has signed a law that eliminates straight party voting on ballots.
The Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that will end straight-ticket voting beginning with the general election in November.



Texas Democrats sue to keep straight-ticket voting

Is there a reason Abbott doesn't trust the top of the ticket?

 

[Pogo]

Is straight party voting on ballots a problem?

It's a problem insofar as it's based on a sweeping generalization. We don't vote for parties, we vote for people.

I use this example over and over but it's true --- the sheriff in my town runs for re-election as a Democrat or as a Republican depending on which way he thinks the winds are blowing. He's the same guy doing the same job in the same way either way. The idea that a "Democrat has traits X" or a "Republican has traits Y" is ludicrous on its face.

Perhaps of greater value is that not being able to vote a straight party line forces the voter to find out something about the candidates ------ as do nonpartisan elections, like in cities. Maybe ballots should simply be stripped of ALL party affiliation notations.

 

[the other mike]

Texas Gov. Abbot has signed a law that eliminates straight party voting on ballots.
The Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that will end straight-ticket voting beginning with the general election in November.

Texas Democrats sue to keep straight-ticket voting

We don't have vote by phone yet ?
Texas Democrats has a strange sound to it, like California Republicans.

 

[Sunni Man]

I want the convenience of straight party voting. ...

It saves me time because I won't vote for anyone with a "D" in front of their name.

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Texas Gov. Abbot has signed a law that eliminates straight party voting on ballots.
The Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that will end straight-ticket voting beginning with the general election in November.
Texas Democrats sue to keep straight-ticket voting

Easy enough to get around, but you really have to wonder why the ability to vote every candidate collectively with a single button press along party lines was ever incorporated into voting machines in the first place.

Are people voting for parties or actual individuals?

In Texas it is a safe bet that the all of the Dem candidates are rotten and not worth sorting through in the voting booth.

 

[Pogo]

I want the convenience of straight party voting. ...

It saves me time because I won't vote for anyone with a "D" before their name.

Thanks. This post ^^ illustrates why it's a problem, in shorter order than I could. As does the post immediately above, demonstrating exactly what I put down about sweeping generalizations.

Notable people with a D after their name....
Billy Graham...
Zell Miller...
Whatzisname that sheriff in Wisconsin...
Jim Justice Gov of WV (until after he was elected)

And of course a long list of (mainly Southern) Republicans before they switched, yet somehow did not transmogrify themselves into entirely different people....

A political party is nothing more than a vehicle. Whether you take the R(enault) or the D(odge), you're going to the SAME GODDAM PLACE.

 

[Sunni Man]

Thanks. This post ^^ illustrates why it's a problem, in shorter order than I could.

I don't see how it's a problem. ...

I'm not voting for a Democrat even if I have to push several buttons instead of just one.

 

[Pogo]

Texas Gov. Abbot has signed a law that eliminates straight party voting on ballots.
The Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that will end straight-ticket voting beginning with the general election in November.
Texas Democrats sue to keep straight-ticket voting

Easy enough to get around, but you really have to wonder why the ability to vote every candidate collectively with a single button press along party lines was ever incorporated into voting machines in the first place.

Are people voting for parties or actual individuals?

Long ago (like in Lincoln's time) you didn't get presented with a ballot listing everybody's name running. The ballots were printed by the political party and you picked it up from them. If you wanted Whigs you went to the Whig Party and got their ballot. That's likely how that insanity got started.

That's why Lincoln's name wasn't on ballots in what would soon become the Confederacy. The Republican Party (then 6 years old) didn't print any there. They figured, correctly, that their support was going to be in the north, west and midwest. Frémont's name didn't get printed in the South either. The first Republican POTUS candy to appear on ballots in the South was Grant, 1868.

 

[my2¢]

I believe the governor there is making a huge assumption that Texans are smart enough to handle such a radical change for them.

 

[Sunni Man]

I believe the governor there is making a huge assumption that Texans are smart enough to handle such a radical change for them.

Shut your stupid pie hole nitwit. ...

 

[Pogo]

I believe the governor there is making a huge assumption that Texans are smart enough to handle such a radical change for them.

Assumptions are bigger in Texas.