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Trends Show Partisan Voting Popularity In Iowa
IowaWatch.org ^ | December 23, 2014 | Lyle Muller and Danielle Wilde

Posted on 12/24/2014 1:46:45 PM PST by iowamark

One of every three Iowans – 37 percent – voted a straight-party ticket in the 2014 general election, statistics the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office compiled for the first time revealed.

Expect those results to be part of another bid in the 2015 Legislature to eliminate straight-ticket voting, the practice that allows voters to fill one oval on the ballot for all of the candidates in one political party. State Rep. Peter Cownie, R-West Des Moines, said this week he has filed another attempt to pass the straight-ticket ban in the upcoming session.

“This is one area where, if we can just take a little bit of partisanship out of the process, I think it serves all Iowans better,” Cownie said in an interview. These vote totals are part of the 1.14 million voters casting ballots in Iowa for the 2014 general election. They are not certified. Source: Iowa Secretary of State

These vote totals are part of the 1.14 million votes cast in Iowa for the 2014 general election. They are not certified. Source: Iowa Secretary of State

Republicans benefited most in the mid-term election, with 212,085 straight-ticket ballots accounting for 18.7 percent of all votes cast on Election Day, Nov. 4, and in absentee and early ballots leading up to that day. Most of the Republicans’ ballots were cast on Election Day.

A total of 194,299 Democrats voted straight tickets, accounting for 17.1 percent of the total vote of 1.14 million. Most of the Democrats’ straight-party votes were made by absentee and early ballots, the data obtained by IowaWatch reveal.

The rest of the single-party voting in the general election was nominal for third-party candidates.

The data are noteworthy, in part, because this kind of detailed report on how many straight-ticket votes were cast in a general election previously has not been collected. None is required by law, although the Secretary of State’s office has produced estimates based on surveys with county auditors.

Data were collected this year after journalists writing about legislative attempts to ban straight-ticket voting sought information about the practice, Sarah Reisetter, Iowa director of elections, said.

“If people ask about it, we will provide it,” Reisetter said. “But we haven’t analyzed it to make any conclusions about any policy matters based on that data.

Bids by Cownie the past two years to drop straight-ticket voting have failed. Last year’s attempt died in the House State Government Committee. Cownie said Monday he is trying again in 2015.

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Cownie said in an IowaWatch interview.

“You’ve got to get the conversations started, so hopefully the conversation has begun,” he said. Cownie said he hears from Democrats, Republicans and voters declaring no party who like his idea.

“The problem is, probably, state parties,” Cownie said, referring to leaders and activists of the state’s political parties. “I’m not sure that they’re, in fact, going to be on board with it – either one. But that’s something that we’ll need to work through if we’re ever going to get it into law, probably.”

There has been a steady decline the past few decades in the number of states with a straight-ticket voting option. Iowa is one of 12 allowing it. Attempts to get rid of the option in the U.S. House have been made, but unsuccessfully.

Data the Secretary of State’s Office collected from the 2014 general election remains unofficial because the straight-ticket data comes from Iowa’s 99 counties’ individual files. Totals have not been certified by the state executive council. The vote totals in the report, for example, do not match the official 1,142,311 reported by the Secretary of State for the election.

“There’s been no effort to verify its accuracy with the counties at this point, because it’s not something that they’re legally required to provide to us as part of the official election result,” Reisetter said.

Secretary of State-elect Paul Pate, who takes office Jan. 1, will make the decision on whether or not a policy analysis is made on the newly collected information. He has not indicated a position.

The impact straight-ticket voting has on the rest of a ballot is hard to determine. While it helps candidates with party affiliations it also results, critics fear, in voters skipping the rest of the ballot where votes for ballot initiatives, local township officers and judge retention are sought.

Three of every five people voting in the 2014 general election skipped at least one part of the ballot, Secretary of State data show, but what they skipped was not determined. Voters may have skipped some candidates with party affiliations, for example.

Timothy Hagle, University of Iowa associate professor of political science, said he was skeptical about efforts to ban straight-ticket voting in Iowa. “I would say that if you’re thinking that you would like to eliminate straight-ticket voting to cause people, or to force people to learn more about the candidates, I don’t think it’s going to happen that way,” Hagle said.

“Unless there’s some problem associated with straight-ticket voting that can be identified and then solved by eliminating straight-ticket voting, people probably aren’t going to care.” Jim Leach, University of Iowa chair in public affairs, visiting professor of law and senior scholar

Jim Leach, University of Iowa chair in public affairs, visiting professor of law and senior scholar

Former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, a visiting professor of law and senior scholar at the University of Iowa, said straight-ticket voting exists because of party activists in each party who have believed at various points in time that it benefits their party.

“I have always found it ironic that a straight-ticket lever exists in the state,” Leach wrote in an email.

He went on to write, “But change will be hard to set in place unless and until legislators think first and foremost for the best interests of Iowa rather than that of their preferred political party.”

The general election data IowaWatch obtained from the Secretary of State’s Office also showed the continuing shift in voters’ preferences for absentee ballots that allow them to vote early, either at early polling places or by mail.

This year 39.4 percent of Iowans voting used absentee ballots. That compares to 43.3 percent in 2012, when more voters in nine Iowa counties cast absentee ballots than Election Day ballots.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: straightticketvoting
A total of 12 states allow or offer straight-ticket voting (STV). With a few exceptions, the straight-ticket option is available in all elections, including primaries, and applies to all offices on the ticket, including federal, state and local races. The states with STV are:

Alabama

Pennesylvania

Indiana

Rhode Island

Iowa

South Carolina

Kentucky

Texas

Michigan

Utah

Oklahoma

West Virginia

STV has been declining in popularity over the past decade. At least three states did away with it, and a fourth nearly did, during the 1990s. Two more states abolished it in 2006 and 2007, followed by Wisconsin in 2011.

Georgia – abolished STV in 1994. Some Democrats in Georgia advocate reinstating it on the basis of several studies that have shown losses for Democrats, particularly among African American voters, since it was abolished.

Illinois – abolished STV in 1997. It was a highly partisan battle in Illinois, with the Republican legislature and governor abolishing STV on the last day before the new legislature took office in January 1997. The argument eventually wound up in the Illinois Supreme Court, which in 1998 refused to reverse the decision to abolish STV.

Michigan – attempted to abolish STV in 2001 with the passage of SB 173. However, voters repealed the law in the 2002 election after the issue was petitioned on to the statewide ballot.

Missouri – abolished STV in 2006 as part of legislation mandating photo ID to vote.

New Hampshire – abolished STV in 2007.

North Carolina – abolished STV in 2014 as part of 2013 legislation (HB 589).

Rhode Island – abolished STV in 2015 as part of 2014 legislation (HB 8072).

South Dakota – abolished STV in 1996. South Dakota’s action was bipartisan, with substantial majorities of both parties in the legislature approving the elimination of STV.

Wisconsin – abolished STV in 2011, effective for November 2012 elections. STV will remain available for UOCAVA voters.

New Mexico – secretary of state decided not to offer a straight-ticket option in beginning with the November 2012 election. While it has historically been offered by tradition, it is not required by the state statutes or constitution.

1 posted on 12/24/2014 1:46:45 PM PST by iowamark
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To: iowamark
Expect those results to be part of another bid in the 2015 Legislature to eliminate straight-ticket voting, the practice that allows voters to fill one oval on the ballot for all of the candidates in one political party. State Rep. Peter Cownie, R-West Des Moines, said this week he has filed another attempt to pass the straight-ticket ban in the upcoming session.

The peasants are too stupid to understand what they are doing, you see?

2 posted on 12/24/2014 1:52:18 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Any energy source that requires a subsidy is, by definition, "unsustainable.")
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To: iowamark

They should get rid of it because it probably helps Democrats who dont won’t know what to do.


3 posted on 12/24/2014 1:53:07 PM PST by ObamahatesPACoal
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To: iowamark
More links and data at the source.

In 2014, it appears that STV slightly favored the GOP. In recent Presidential elections, there is no question that it favored the Dems.


4 posted on 12/24/2014 1:54:25 PM PST by iowamark (I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy)
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To: iowamark

Iowa thinks the answer is to give voters less choice when voting


5 posted on 12/24/2014 2:04:28 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: iowamark
Some of the fatuous - and occasionally drunken - boasting I've endured at election time convince me that a lot of really crappy down-ticket results are due to straight-ticket voting and nothing else. It takes little time to fill in all the races and get a straight ticket if you actually want to do it.

OTOH, it does make it fast and easy for the Democrat "helpers" that go to nursing homes and fill out the ballots for residents with dementia.

Mr. niteowl77

6 posted on 12/24/2014 7:02:31 PM PST by niteowl77 (The five stages of Progressive persuasion: lecture, nudge, shove, arrest, liquidate.)
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