The Truth:
Straight-ticket voting is an option on
the ballots of some states in which a voter can simply choose all of the
candidates of a particular party at once instead of having to vote for
each of them individually.
If you want to vote for all of the
Republicans on the ballot, for example, all you have to do is choose the
straight ticket option for "Republican" and with one punch of the ballot
or one press of the button on electronic machines, you're done.
The reason for this warning, however,
is to alert voters that if they choose the straight ticket option, they
can't vote for any other candidates individually. If, for example, you
chose the Republican straight vote option for the entire list of
Republican candidates---but you also wanted to vote for Barack Obama for
president, your marking of the ballot for Barack Obama would be
invalidated because you had already chosen the Republican straight vote
option.
So if you want to vote across party
lines for various candidates, mark the ballot for each of those
candidates individually.
Straight ticket voting is only
available in 16 states: Alabama, Oklahoma, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Iowa,
Rhode Island, Kentucky, South Carolina, Michigan, Texas, New Jersey,
Utah, New Mexico, West Virginia, North Carolina and Wisconsin. New
Jersey only has straight-ticket voting in primary elections. North
Carolina straight-ticket voting is not available for presidential
electors. Rhode Island only has straight-ticket voting in general
elections.
A spokesperson from the
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) website
told truthorfiction.com that in states where voting polls are set up for
straight ticket voting, the voter may select to vote individually or for
all candidates affiliated with a particular party. Once the option is
selected the other option will be locked out.
Voters who live in these states
choosing to vote straight tickets should consult their ballot
instructions:
Click
for Alabama Voter Information
Click
for Indiana Voter Information
Click
for Iowa Voter Information
Click
for Kentucky Voter Information
Click
for Michigan Voter Information
Click
for New Jersey Voter Information
Click for New Mexico Voter
Information
Click
for North Carolina Voter Information
Click
for Oklahoma Voter Information
Click for Pennsylvania Voter
Information
Click
for Rhode Island Voter Information
Click for South Carolina Voter
Information
Click
for Texas Voter Information
Click
for Utah Voter Information
Click
for West Virginia Voter Information
Click
for Wisconsin Voter Information
updated 10/29/08
