Nice of the Republicans to do the suing to help Gary, but it's in their interest to keep a Democrat from winning a Senate race.
In a sudden move with suspicious timing, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, an elected Democrat, announced today that voters in November will once again be able to vote for every candidate of a political party on the ballot by filling in just one blank. The option, known as the "straight-party" device, gives obvious advantage to parties with high voter-registration totals, while erecting roadblocks to otherwise over-performing candidates from third parties.We've had this option in Wisconsin, and I'd never thought of it as a special problem. But adopting it so specifically to fight off one candidate seems like such obvious corruption of the office of Secretary of State that it deserves a legal challenge and it should be usable as a neatly packaged political issue for Johnson. The state is "heavily Democratic," so why the temptation to depart from winning fair and square? I can only think that the sense of entitlement is so strong, they forget not to show it.
Like, say, Libertarian Senate candidate Gary Johnson.
"Suggesting that New Mexico voters don't want to take the time to actually indicate their preferences for each office is ridiculous," [Gary Johnson] wrote in an email. "Pushing voters toward straight ticket voting is a worn-out staple of major party incumbents, and flies in the face of the reality that the great majority of voters are independent-minded and don't need or appreciate a ballot that provides a short-cut to partisanship."...
States have repealed straight ticket devices in the past fifty years are Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas (effective 2019), and Wisconsin.I'm surprised to see Wisconsin on that list. I didn't notice the repeal (which, I see elsewhere, happened in 2011).
Michigan repealed its device in 2016, but a U.S. District Court recently struck down the Michigan repeal.On what basis? Race discrimination?
Besides Michigan and New Mexico, the only states that still have straight-ticket devices are Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Utah.So it's a great issue to have coming to the forefront in this time of creative destruction.
It is hard to read straight-ticket voting as anything but representatives from the two major parties blunting third-party competition and cementing their own incumbency, regardless of voters' growing disaffection with party membership and loyalty over time.
After writing everything you see above, I looked up the Michigan case, and my guess was right. The court found it racially discriminatory! Reuters reported on August 1st:
The ruling permanently blocks what U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain called a politically motivated move by the Republican-controlled state legislature in a state that backed President Donald Trump in 2016 after twice choosing Democratic former President Barack Obama....I wonder, did the New Mexico Secretary of State present her action in terms of protecting racial minorities. The quote from her in Reason is:
Drain cited research finding African-American voters are more likely than voters of other races to cast a straight-ticket ballot and are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican. “The goal of ending the Democratic Party’s success with straight-ticket voters, therefore, was achieved at the expense of African-Americans’ access to the ballot,” Drain wrote in a 103-page ruling....
"The more options people have, the easier it is for more eligible voters to participate—and participation is the key to our democratic process," she said in her statement. "As Secretary of State, I am committed to making it easier—not harder—for New Mexicans to vote….From moms juggling work and kids to elderly veterans who find it hard to stand for long, straight-party voting provides an option for voters that allows their voices to be heard while cutting in half the time it takes them to cast their ballot."She used juggling "moms" and "elderly veterans." They're the ones she invites you to picture struggling to get through a long ballot. She didn't use the idea in the Michigan case, and I can see why. It's insulting!
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...while cutting in half the time it takes them to cast their ballot
...as measured in nanoseconds? Those folks must be so grateful for the extra time to blink.
So black people who are, literally, standing there looking at a ballot, are denied “access to the ballot”?
It would change elections forever if they removed the party affiliation from the ballot, unless the candidates all changed their names to Demi and Repert. People would have to pay attention or vote randomly or not at all.
I find the idea that *because* black people do something in greater percentage, it is *racist* not to do it. Black people are as capable of voting as everyone else.
We all know the pushers of "straight-party" tickets want to be able to pay people to vote who don't know anything about the vote is easier if you can instruct them to just fill in one circle. We all remember the disaster of trying to tell busloads of people how to vote on Florida's infamous butterfly ballot in 2000.
The more options people have, the easier it is for more eligible voters to participate—and participation is the key to our democratic process
how long will it be before the dem's decide that What The Country Needs Is: Proxy Voting?
If you just sign your vote over to a democratic party proxy; They can make sure your vote counts in Every Election. No more having to juggle getting food for your children and waiting in line (or filling out an absentee ballot) to vote. Once you've signed over your vote to your proxy: Everything is taken care of for you.
Mind you, i'm Not saying i think we should, i'm saying i'm surprised the dem's haven't
Is there anything Democrats think African-Americans can do without the government helping them out? I look forward to the day American courts become color blind and make decisions not based on race.
Meant to say I find that idea ridiculous, and actually pretty racist in and of itself.
Is there anything Democrats think African-Americans can do without the government helping them out?
This. Yes.
The Condescension party needs your vote, you stupids.
* * *
Yesterday Judge Sweet. Today Judge Drain. They need a third.
Just give the voters 2 bubble gum cards, one with a picture of Hillary and the other with a picture of Trump. Put your preference in the ballot box. Throw the other one on the ground in the parking lot, which would save on exit polling.
I find election laws in other states to be bizarre. In Nebraska, we have paper ballots that are read by optical reader. No ability to hack. Not too much equipment to buy. Paper trail. There are two or three election companies in the US and one of them is in Omaha, ESS.
We also don't elect judges. The Governor appoints and then the judge stands for retention.
The Nebraska way is usually the best way.
"Our voters are so dumb we can offer them only one choice."
Black people are kind of scarce in New Mexico, so that idea won't fly.
Steve Pearce (R) running for governor is the problem; not Gary Johnson running for US Senator.
(The way it works in NM, Tom Udall (D) and Martin Heinrich (D) once elected have pretty much got lifetime appointments to the Senate. Johnson is just exercising his ego and getting publicity as a gadfly.)
Bob Boyd said... Just give the voters 2 bubble gum cards
wow! just think of the stats on the back. Of course, you'd be inclined to not vote for someone just so that you could keep their card.
"DUDE! I just sold my Barry Soetoro rookie card!!!"
"what'd you get for it?"
"An O'Bama Phone!"
Tar and feathers.
The one party States have all the local races in the bag and don't need the Straight Ticket option except for the Presidential race. Voting the Straight Ticket was once seen as a bragging point in Georgia saying that one was a "yellow dog democrat" in the Presidential race. You see, all of the local contests had already been decided by the August vote in Democrat Primary. There were only 100 or so admitted Republicans in Georgia and they had moved here from up North.
White feathers?
New Mexico has 6 ballot initiatives this year. The Secretary of State announced today that citizens should just fucking ignore them because it holds up the queue. "You want to cripple a veteran?" She asked. "For fucks sake, no one reads those bond issues ahead of time and I'm tired of asking. I ask and ask and ask and you never do it. So this year I'll do the voting on them. The rest of you lazy asses, just speed up your voting and get your idiot kids out of the polling place. They're a fucking nuisance and the poll workers don't have enough stickers.
And yes, Maggie Toulose Oliver is a way left partisan Democrat, but of the idealistic true believer kind.
I don't see the problem with a straight party vote, it saves me the trouble of going through the ballot and carefully not voting for any Democrats. I did vote for a Libertarian in one election because he was the brother of a coworker, I didn't even care about his positions because there was no way he was going to win, but it has been a long time since there was a Democrat on the ballot that I could vote for.
"Of course, you'd be inclined to not vote for someone just so that you could keep their card."
You could pick one up in the parking lot.
With the bubble-gum card option, third parties would be viable. You pass out the card in the parking lot and they go in and drop it in the box.
There are good people in this country, who happen to be Democrats. A lot of them.
However, as a organization, the Democrat Party, specifically its apparatus, is atrocious. They don't believe in the Constitution, or national sovereignty, they certainly don't in borders, or the traditions of our country. They are mostly a loose collection of liars, atheists, rent seekers, cultists, socialists, homosexual activists, abortionists, InCels, snowflakes, latent authoritarians and pussy-hatted weirdos.
Politicians claiming higher moral ground always set off my crap detector.
"You could pick one up in the parking lot."
But then it wouldn't be mint condition.
So Democrats think Black people are too stupid to obtain a state ID card or to vote unless they are given a simplistic option.
But Republicans are racist.
Althouse I have posted a large number of comments on my use of the straight-party vote in Michigan.
We Republicans are fighting against it (notwithstanding my use of it, which I'll get to) and I think we will win unless we get a really screwed-up panel at the Sixth Circuit.
So why are we fighting so hard to get rid of it? It is because low-information Democrat voters in Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Wayne County, etc., have been trained to vote a straight Democratic ticket. And in doing so, they are automatically casting votes for Democrats whom they don't know and ordinarily wouldn't care about; university boards, down-ballot local races, etc. It builds the Democrats' bench of strength in the state. They are votes that many dumb voters wouldn't even have made, but for the straight ticket.
Now; notwithstanding my hatred of the straight ticket option, I use it. I use it for convenience mostly, but in 2016, my "straight ticket" Republican vote allowed me to avoid actually placing a mark next to the names of Donald J. Trump for President and Michael Pence for Vice President. Which gave me some minor, Pyrrhic satisfaction.
Now; in at least one place where the straight ticket has been done away with -- Kansas -- they are trying to bring it back, on what I presume is the exact same theory but reversing the parties. My sometime-hero Kris Kobach is doing that, and I really can't say that I like it but it is ultimately a state matter. Or should be.
The Michigan federal case for an injunction against enforcement of the recent Republican-led legislative withdrawal of straight ticket voting was assigned to an Eastern District judge who is a longtime Wayne County Democrat political hack and activist. The result was fore-ordained. Now on to the Sixth Circuit.
"idealistic true believer kind" who believes the state should not waste money putting roofs on the cattle cars because they are going to ______ anyway.
Libertarians, to their credit, really do offer interesting ideas and are not shy about criticizing either party for their political foibles. The only problem for Libertarians is that they aren't politically astute. But Gary Johnson is their top guy and he could win this Senate seat.
The state is "heavily Democratic," so why the temptation to depart from winning fair and square?
Because they can!
Not statistics, slogans
"Half the people are rubbish." - Hillary's award-winning slogan in 2016.
"Firmly quell the rising prosperity." - proposed slogan for 2018
"We were born to make the fairy tale come true!" Americans for Magic Justice Socialism - 2020 election
Bay Area Guy said...
Libertarians, to their credit, really do offer interesting ideas and are not shy about criticizing either party for their political foibles. The only problem for Libertarians is that they aren't politically astute.
There's a reason those two sentences go together.
>>So black people who are, literally, standing there looking at a ballot, are denied “access to the ballot”?
Exactly.
It's no longer required that the excuses make sense.
"I can only think that the sense of entitlement is so strong, they forget not to show it."
Nah, they didn't forget, they just don't give a damn, and in particular they don't give a damn what you think.
"“The goal of ending the Democratic Party’s success with straight-ticket voters, therefore, was achieved at the expense of African-Americans’ access to the ballot,” Drain wrote in a 103-page ruling...."
So, when African-American have the full ballot in front of them, they still don't have "access"? Sure, that takes 103 pages to explain.
"She didn't use the idea in the Michigan case, and I can see why. It's insulting!"
Why? The right juggling moms and veterans are happy to be used as pawns, and the rest don't matter. It's a little late to get all moralistic and upset and everything about Dem machinations. They don't give a damn about your tender feelings.
The state is "heavily Democratic," so why the temptation to depart from winning fair and square?
Because they can!
Because the slim possibility exists that they might not. Can't take the chance.
”But then it wouldn't be mint condition.”
You use the one you pick up in the parking lot to vote.
>>Because the slim possibility exists that they might not. Can't take the chance.
I think this is correct, and a result of the 2016 surprise victory for Trump.
As I've said before, I believe the only reason Trump won is because the D fraud machine was so convinced of Hillary's landslide victory they didn't bother.
They won't make that mistake again, at least not for a long time.
I could be misremembering, but NC required you to choose a Prez (maybe all Federal off.) independent of the straight ticket button. I think they ended it this century with little fuss.
It's a pure machine politics move.
I can only think that the sense of entitlement is so strong, they forget not to show it.
There's a lot of truth to that. Liberals get careless, they think their positions are so obviously right that they forget that people around them might not agree. So they get caught in a lot "mask slipping" and "open mic" moments.
crimethink not allowed:
https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/29/fbi-refuses-disclose-intelligence-community-inspector-general/
Maggie Toulouse Oliver brags about being named a “progressive champion” by out-of-state billionaire George Soros, and she has received more than $300,000 in both direct and so-called “independent” contributions from Soros. More troubling, Soros says he wants to “control the offices that administer elections.”
Carlsbad Current-Argus
"I could be misremembering, but NC required you to choose a Prez (maybe all Federal off.) independent of the straight ticket button."
For what federal official do we vote other than the President?
More State AG news "Privately Fund State Attorney General Offices to Advance Climate Change Legal Positions"
"Law Enforcement for Rent"
https://cei.org/AGclimatescheme
For what federal official do we vote other than the President?
I have been known to vote for senators and representatives, but maybe they do it differently in New York.
New Mexico’ s culture has never been too subtle about being corrupt or stupid. It’s s feature, not a bug. Politically there’s never been much of a price to pay.
Larvell,
Senators and congressional representatives go to work in Washington DC, but they are there to represent the interests of their states aand districts respectively.
This why the Secretary of State race in Ohio is a big issue. If theDemocrtas ca n get that office, it is battle space prep for 2000.
"She didn't use the idea in the Michigan case, and I can see why. It's insulting!"
Insulting to whom? It is insulting to research subjects to cite the results of the research?
"Drain cited research finding African-American voters are more likely than voters of other races to cast a straight-ticket ballot and are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican."
I’m disappointed that Reason is troubled by this. Some people like straight-part voting. Convenient to just push one button.
Those who want to vote for each candidate office-by-office have the Freedom to do so.
Voters are Free to vote straight party quickly and are Free to go candidate by candidate.
Punching one hole for the whole ballot is Efficient. We don’t have blacksmiths anymore either. No reason to slog through the whole ballot.
Freedom and Efficiency. When did Reason become such nannies? Fucking hypocrites
In a sudden move with suspicious timing, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, an elected Democrat
See NJ with Torchy and Massachusetts Ted
What if the republican button “isn’t working” McCullough?
Stories abound.
Insulting to whom? It is insulting to research subjects to cite the results of the research?
It is insulting to extrapolate incapacity.
He extrapolated ... poorly.
When Illinois had straight party voting, the reason was simple.
Precinct captains opened voting stations before voters were allowed in. Their job (in the days of lever pull voting machines) was to set the machine to straight Democrat (upper right hand corner) and pull the lever as many times as they could.
The objects was not so much to elect Dem senators or presidents. It was to elect all the Cook County officers that no one knew about. Those offices were prized because of the graft opportunities. Governor and Secretary of State were also prized offices for graft.
Seeing Red,
No different than not counting the ballots accurately or throwing them out. Always an issue.
When did Reason become another rag pushing for nanny-state solutions? The NM SOS just gave voters more options that allow for more efficiency in voting. But Reason is now whining about it. Bullshit. Those guys are just open borders stooges getting paid by the Brothers K.
As a voter, you should have to vote each individual office and ballot initiative. If I were king, you wouldn't even have the party affiliation listed on the ballot itself.
> As a voter, you should have to vote each individual office and ballot initiative.
I tend to vote for the team rather than the individual. That, after all, is how politics works, especially in these times of political and cultural conflict. If I were to vote for a Democrat, I would fully expect him or her to support the party line, same for a Republican. Mavericks are of little use when the battle lines are drawn up, although I might make a bit of allowance for Rand Paul.
Ballot initiatives are already voted separately from party, at least in my state. Is that not the case everywhere?
I would fully expect him or her to support the party line
That's really only been possible the last few decades, as the parties moved toward ideological purity. Oddly, the Congressional leaders complain about a growing lack of party discipline in the same period.
@Mccullough
I thought the staff at Reason would all be living on that island off the coast of Venezuela by now -- the one that was going to have no police and no borders and no laws and therefore, according to them, no crime.
Libertarian logic is just the latest flavor of utopianism. And utopia always requires somebody with deep pockets deciding precisely how everyone else is going to live. Thus the Kochs' libertarian nanny state. They don't even have the integrity to disclose how many journalists are in their keep. And those in their keep are not allowed to disclose it.
So, the commitment to freedom has pretty strict limitations.
Yancey Ward: As a voter, you should have to vote each individual office and ballot initiative. If I were king, you wouldn't even have the party affiliation listed on the ballot itself.
I agree, and I'll take it a step further - in the presidential election, the only thing on the ballot should be the names of the electors, and they shouldn't even be grouped together.
At the very least, that would make it harder to claim that any particular presidential candidate "won the popular vote".
"Drain cited research finding African-American voters are more likely than voters of other races to cast a straight-ticket ballot and are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican."
People vote in secret. How would researchers know who voted for whom? Exit polls?
Drain cited research finding African-American voters are more likely than voters of other races to cast a straight-ticket ballot and are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican. “The goal of ending the Democratic Party’s success with straight-ticket voters, therefore, was achieved at the expense of African-Americans’ access to the ballot,” Drain wrote in a 103-page ruling
BS
They have full access to the ballot. If they don't care enough to mark the slot for a candidate, then the candidate doesn't deserve their vote
"The more options people have, the easier it is for more eligible voters to participate—and participation is the key to our democratic process,"
Wrong.
The key to our democratic process is informed voters making a choice.
I do find it very telling that the key to the Democrat process is uninformed and apathetic people pulling a switch whose consequences they do not understand.
Sort of tells you everything you need to know about the Democrats
Francisco D. hit the nail on the head. This is all about vote fraud.
When a State Democrat organization finds they need X number of votes from each precinct, the Democrat thieves at the polling places don't have time to fill out an entire ballot for all the dead people, non-voting and non-existent whose votes they need. So they just do one punch or mark for the whole ballot.
They really had to strain to come up with the race angle. And a Federal judge actually bought it. What a joke, and could this be any more insulting to black people?
So, the presumption of the court is that minorities are or should be a monolithic bloc, and that any expression of individual character is evidence of diversity or color judgment, manipulation, or deception. Vote your diversity. Vote your color.
Americans with a black-colored skin will always be "African-Americans" or half-breeds. That doesn't consider the brown, white, yellow-colored Africans. One step forward, two steps backward.
The state is "heavily Democratic," so why the temptation to depart from winning fair and square?
1) "Heavily" is not certainty; Johnson got elected governor as an (R) there twice, and in 2016 the Trump and Johnson votes combined exceeded the Clinton vote. So if you can tempt Republicans into voting straight-ticket (R) rather than carve out for Johnson, you make it harder for Johnson to take the Senate seat from Heinrich.
2) (R) voters are statistically more conscientious than (D) voters, so anything that increases the (R) voter turnout for top-of-ticket races (like Johnson making news in the Senate race) hurts Democrats disproportionately in down-ticket races. On the other hand, people being able to vote straight-ticket (D) but not straight-ticket (R) (if they want to record a Johnson vote) will help D margin in down-ballot votes, since more conscientious as a statistical matter is not the same thing as perfectly conscientious.
Wilbur said...
Francisco D. hit the nail on the head. This is all about vote fraud.
…
No, it really isn't. I know that conspiracy theorists love "vote fraud," and the alt-right Trumpists love those theories, but it just isn't a serious claim. The serious claim, is that in close elections, Democrats in many areas (and perhaps Republicans in Kansas) think that they can pick up down-ballot races that would normally get overlooked or ignored by most disinterested voters.
Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire,
I have a Mayor Daley on the Line. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
President Nixon from 1961 would like to talk to you after that.
Secretary of state Initiative is a long standing Soros project.
"Republican vote allowed me to avoid actually placing a mark next to the names of Donald J. Trump for President and Michael Pence for Vice President."
Chuck, I could have sworn you've stated here in the past that you ultimately voted for Trump.
"No, it really isn't."
Well. I'm from Chicago. So. Yes it really is.
Phil,
Chuck alleges that he voted a straight party ticket because he is a life long Moby, I mean Republican. He did have have to vote for Trump individually.
Now, if you believe Chuck, there is a bridge in Brooklyn I want you to look at. It's on sale.
"I know that conspiracy theorists love "vote fraud," and the alt-right Trumpists love those theories, but it just isn't a serious claim."
Says the man who watched Detroit precincts vote 120% for Obama, but did not see fraud.
You need to go back to Moby class. You really are unconvincing.
BTW, I am From Chicago and know people who worked the precincts. No one who grew up in Chicago doubts that there is constant vote fraud by your pals, the Democrats.
Correction
did = did not have to vote for Trump individually.
I have no idea how large the ballot is in some places, but I doubt I have ever been faced with more than 20 choices in any general election including all propositions. It isn't that hard to vote straight party if one wants to, just find the party row, mark the bubbles in that row, and turn in the ballot. Next thing you know it will be ruled racist to require people to actually vote in person, then it will be racist to require registration, then it will be racist to not count the votes of the minorities and non-citizens who didn't vote. Don't worry, the judges can divine the intent of the silent and the dead in the penumbra of the Fourteenth Amendment and correct the clearly racist election results.
I suspect the real reason for this push isn't to counter racism, it's probably a way to make it easier to submit fraudulent ballots. Whether that be someone not eligible to vote or a party machine trying to stuff the ballot box, having to select each individual candidate greatly increases the time it takes to complete the ballot. Nobody would get suspicious over 1000 ballots marked with a straight Dem box, whereas they'd probably get suspicious over 1000 ballots marked only for the Democrat in the top race and blank everywhere else.
Says the man who watched Detroit precincts vote 120% for Obama, but did not see fraud.
Evidence?
In 2008, Obama won 660,000 votes in Wayne County, 74% of the total ballots cast.
A 2012 article lists Wayne Country as having 1.4M qualified voters.
Someone explain to me how getting rid of straight-ticket voting limits "access to the ballot"? This is incredibly stupid wording.
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