What are your state ballots like? Ours suck.

[dmp]

I got my ballot in the mail last week - Somebody in Washington thinks they are a 'great' idea. Here's the run down.


Before you enter any votes, you must first select one of three parties - Dem, Repub. or Libertarian. Now - after that selection is made, you are only allowed to vote for a candidate from the party you 'affiliated' with at the start of the ballot. For example; I selected Republican. For every partisan race, I can ONLY select a republican candidate inspite of who i feel would 'best' do the job.

Now tell me...what kind of sense does that make? Who is the asshat who came up with such a ballot, and why the hell are my sales-tax dollars still paying his/her salary???


That is all.

 

[DKSuddeth]

so, if you select republican you have to vote ALL republican? you can't decide that the one single democrat or libertarian you may have running in a seperate race is the one you wish to vote for? that royally sucks ass dude.

 

[CSM]

Yeah a lot of states are like that. you have to declare a party and then can only vote for the candidates in that party. In our state, if you are registered as independent and want to vote for any candidate who was not nominated by the RNC/DNC, then you have to register as a Dem (that's where they put those 'non-approved' candidates for some reason), vote, then reregister as an independent again. Otherwise, they keep you registered as a Democrat. Wierd, eh?

 

[DKSuddeth]

no wonder people don't care to vote.

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

I got my ballot in the mail last week - Somebody in Washington thinks they are a 'great' idea. Here's the run down.


Before you enter any votes, you must first select one of three parties - Dem, Repub. or Libertarian. Now - after that selection is made, you are only allowed to vote for a candidate from the party you 'affiliated' with at the start of the ballot. For example; I selected Republican. For every partisan race, I can ONLY select a republican candidate inspite of who i feel would 'best' do the job.

Now tell me...what kind of sense does that make? Who is the asshat who came up with such a ballot, and why the hell are my sales-tax dollars still paying his/her salary???


That is all.

That's stupid. Are you sure that's the way it works? We have the option of voting straight party at the top of our ballot here, but you only select that if you want to vote for one party. It's not a requirement.

It wouldn't be a big deal for me this year as I would gladly vote Republican down the line if I had to, but I wouldn't like it if I lost my choice to vote for anyone from any party.

 

[dmp]

That's stupid. Are you sure that's the way it works? We have the option of voting straight party at the top of our ballot here, but you only select that if you want to vote for one party. It's not a requirement.

It wouldn't be a big deal for me this year as I would gladly vote Republican down the line if I had to, but I wouldn't like it if I lost my choice to vote for anyone from any party.

If I had a scanner, I'd scan it for y'all...if I Cross-vote, the ballot becomes invalid.

I'm likely to vote 100% GOP too - however, what if the likes of Zel Miller were running? I'd be in a tough spot.

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

That just plain sucks. You should call your county registrar and see what act of congress it would get to change that.

 

[dilloduck]

damn--I'd be checking out the legality of that BS ! Sure sounds like it takes away your choice to vote for the candidate that you prefer ! Hopefully this isn't one of theose deals that will come up AFTER the election is over !

 

[ScreamingEagle]

If I had a scanner, I'd scan it for y'all...if I Cross-vote, the ballot becomes invalid.

I'm likely to vote 100% GOP too - however, what if the likes of Zel Miller were running? I'd be in a tough spot.

I'm from the great (cough, cough) liberal city of Seattle myself and you would think that just about anything they do here is nuts.

However, the new rules only apply to the PRIMARIES. This is where the candidates running for each PARTY are decided, so they have you declare your party and then choose the candidates from within that party of your choice. Lots of states do this. There were a couple models proposed and I think we are following the Montana model.

When you vote in the general election you can vote for whomever you wish from any party you choose. The changes apply to the Primary only.

If you got your official voter's phamphlet take a look on page 4 for answers to the most asked questions about the new primary rules.

 

[Merlin1047]

D, it sounds to me like you received a ballot for a primary election. Although that makes no sense either. It is common practice in primaries to allow voters to select candidates only from within their parties. The purpose of this is to avoid having Republicans voting for the Democratic candidate they feel would be the most easily defeated and vice-versa.

In the November election, no one has any right to tell you that you must adhere to any party affiliation in regards to your vote. Matter of fact, I believe that they are not even allowed to ask which party you support. I would recommend you look into this because it sounds like a clerical error in sending this particular ballot, or perhaps you misread it. Either way, your vote is yours to cast as you choose and no one has any right to restrict your choices this November.

 

[dmp]

I'm from the great (cough, cough) liberal city of Seattle myself and you would think that just about anything they do here is nuts.

However, the new rules only apply to the PRIMARIES. This is where the candidates running for each PARTY are decided, so they have you declare your party and then choose the candidates from within that party of your choice. Lots of states do this. There were a couple models proposed and I think we are following the Montana model.

When you vote in the general election you can vote for whomever you wish from any party you choose. The changes apply to the Primary only.

If you got your official voter's phamphlet take a look on page 4 for answers to the most asked questions about the new primary rules.

gotcha

 

[dilloduck]

gotcha

Y'all better hold those primaries pretty soon! :teeth:

(Why ARE you receiving primary ballots now?)

 

[dmp]

Y'all better hold those primaries pretty soon! :teeth:

(Why ARE you receiving primary ballots now?)

I received it in the mail last week - must be post-marked before midnight, tomorrow.

 

[Flying Duck]

I live in Seattle too. This was forced upon us by a Federal court ruling. The Sec of State is getting bombarded with complaints.

I hate it too so I marked the Democrat box and voted to oust all of the Democratic front-runners. It's not like it really matters in Seattle (a.k.a. Berkeley North) anyhow.

 

[Flying Duck]

Here's another good one in Washington voting: The absentee ballots weigh over an ounce, thus making it required to affix more than one stamp for legal postage. The county has arranged to make up the difference to the post office for the overweight postage. Of course, this makes sense as people shouldn't have their ballots returned. Now, the good part, if you drop it in a mialbox with one stamp, it will get delivered. However, if you try to mail it from the post office, they'll make you pay for additional postage. Ridiculous!