Kuff's World

A reader blog about politics and current events with Charles Kuffner

On straight ticket voting







Here’s the reality.












Categories: Uncategorized
Charles Kuffner

10 Responses

  1. maria says:

    Voting straight ticket is fine for the individual who is educated on all the candidates and is comfortable enough to choose either party, but those who do not take the time to review the candidates, its unfair. It’s like voting for a health care bill without reading it.

  2. One more thing says:

    Removal of the Iowa judges underscores the importance of electing our judges, and if anyone comes up with an idea to eliminate elections, that idea should be quashed immediately.

    ALSO, we ought to go one step further and REQUIRE judges to list their party affiliation on all their campaign literature.

  3. SEng says:

    I am wondering if people realize that you can vote a straight party ticket and then go back to individual races and override that vote if you so desire. The straight party options saves me a lot of time because most, but not all, of my votes were for one party. I would be very upset if this convenience was taken away.

  4. Steve Palmer says:

    Straight-ticket voting is for the intellectually lazy. IMO, people who can’t be bothered to vote for candidates on the basis of their individual merits shouldn’t bother to vote at all. Thus, I completely agree that judicial elections should be non-partisan. Yes, special-interest groups will still have influence, but not nearly the influence that political parties currently have over the process.

  5. Doug says:

    Regardless of the merits of straight ticket voting, I think it is odd how candidates seem to run their campaigns apparently oblivious to it. It is essentially useless for any individual candidate for judge, or any below top line race to raise money or campaign as an individual. Any individual’s efforts would be best spent on GOTV for their party or running ads for the top line candidate or for their party brand. They do not seem to do it though and act as though they are going to be the one that causes substantial ticket splitting or that they alone are going to be a reason for a voter to come out and vote.

  6. Bill in Houston says:

    Dem’s have been voting straight ticket since the Tammany Hall days. Nothing new here. You lefties get all bent out of shape when Republicans start doing it.

    Boo hoo.

  7. PayAttention says:

    When you elect judges, particularly based on their opinions rather than their competance, then you are guaranteeing, by treating them as representatives, that they will legislate from the bench. By definition, setting the law based on the will of a constituency is what legislation is. This is a total no-brainer in that regard. There is a reason why we need three branches of government. Freedom itself is at stake when a self-righteous majority has a veto power on human rights.

  8. TransAmer99 says:

    Very simple solution: Put the propositions and non-partisan ballot races at the top of the ballot – before you ever get to the races that can be determined by straight-party ticket voting.

  9. beerformyhorses says:

    We lost Judge Lamar McCorkle in the 2008 mess, one of the best judges we had in this county, he was fair, and most of all he really cared about what was happening to the people who appeared in his courtroom, I hope he runs again someday and I hope it is not the Democrats turn to vote a straight ticket, although, I believe most Dems vote a straight ticket always, I did it for the first time this year, I hope I never have to do it again.

  10. Will says:

    The real problem is the voters don’t know who to vote for in the down ballot races. I’m an attorney who does civil litigation. Therefore, even I know very little about the people running for the criminal bench other than talking to my colleagues in the legal profession.

    The sad thing is straight ticket voting flushes out civil servants whose jobs aren’t necessarily the pushing of public agendas. Take for example the District Clerk. This probably shouldn’t be an elected position. Instead the judges should decide amongst themselves who should be responsible for maintaining the files at the courthouse, keeping track of payments of fees and other deposits, and all the other administrative tasks involved in keeping the courts functioning well.

    Even though I’m a Republican, I voted for the other party’s candidates for District Clerk (an incumbent) and 6 other judicial races because the other party’s candidates were more qualified. I didn’t vote for Loren Jackson for District Clerk two years ago. He earned my vote this year by doing a really good job. During his tenure it became easy to electronically file documents, order copies of documents, and check on the status of cases without making the trek to the courthouse or spending 30 minutes on hold. These changes may have been started by his predecessor, but they continued under his watch.

    I hear the new guy wants to roll back the clock. So, thanks to straight-ticket voting, the courthouse may just get less accessable to the public.