Straight Ticket Voting Dangers for North Carolina

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Straight ticket voting in North Carolina does NOT count for President, you must make your selection for President separately. Many voters, new and old, do not realize this. It is NOT in the voter education guide that is sent out to several million homes in NC:

2004 vote count smoother, still some problems
By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service
December 22, 2004

...The worst rates of undervoting for president this year occurred in New Mexico with 97.5 percent of ballots counting, Idaho with 97.6 percent counting, and North Carolina with 97.7 percent.

...But Gary Bartlett, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections, did not defend the high undervote or suggest voters are ignoring the presidential race. "I was hoping we would improve over what happened in 2000. But this shows a law in our state that needs to be reviewed and probably be changed," Bartlett said.

Both North Carolina and South Carolina historically suffer unusually high undervotes in presidential elections because, by state law, voters who mark the "straight-party-ticket voting" option must also vote separately for president. Every four years, tens of thousands of voters in both states apparently forget to do this.

Full election data is not yet available from South Carolina, but in North Carolina this year 58,223 ballots failed to register a presidential vote.


http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=MISCOUNT-FINAL-12-22-04&cat=AN

[Wilms]

1. I wonder why they do that.

...by state law, voters who mark the "straight-party-ticket voting" option must also vote separately for president.

They ought to call it "straight-party-ticket-except-for-president-voting"...or somethin'.

[bleever]

2. I sense a theme here.

Ballot definition file = the power to say that black is white, white is green, and green is all ours.

[Wilms]

3. That's a really good way to look at it. n/t

[SaveAmerica]

4. Hey there, we're getting the word out to EVERYONE in our little corner of NC

It's amazing the number of people who don't know that, we have literature we're passing out and when I tell people they say they had no idea. We're especially telling them to pass the word on to everyone they know. I think this is the year we won't have such a gap in straight ticket numbers and pres./vp.

[bertman]

5. It tells you right on the ballot that you must vote for Prez separately. But, of course, we

Tarheels are not famous for reading or reading comprehension, so what can you say? Duh.

[struggle4progress]

6. VERY IMPORTANT FACT for voters in NC!

[OakCliffDem]

7. Kick

[bleever]

8. Kick.

:kick: