Sen. Delbert Scott's Photo ID bill deserves to be shot down at some point down the line, though it probably will not be.
Forget about the question about whether it is designed to discourage Democratic voters from coming to the polls; I oppose this legislation because it is unnecessary, expensive, and is already becoming a magnet for special interests who want a piece of the photo ID pie.
A column in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch says state Democrats are unhappy with Sen. Scott because of his announcement on the Senate floor Tuesday night that a conference committee had decided to add a ban on straight-ticket voting to the bill. Though that addition was later eliminated, it is an idea that should have been implemented long ago.
I grow tired of the Democrats' lament that the Republicans are doing everything they can to discourage people from going to the polls. I can see that argument where the photo identification is concerned. It doesn't wash where straight ticket voting is concerned.
Straight ticket voting is a tacit approval of voters who are too lazy to take the time to find out how the candidates stand on the issues. I have yet to run into a non-primary election in which I did not split my votes between the two major parties and, on occasion, I have even voted for an independent or someone from a minor party. No one party has a lock on all of the best candidates. I have always been satisfied with my votes for Democrats such as Jay Nixon, Mel Carnahan, and Claire McCaskill, but I was no less pleased with my votes for John Danforth and Kit Bond, neither of whom I have ever cast a ballot against in an election.
In a county election, a straight ticket makes even less sense. These are positions where competence should be the only consideration since the candidates' views on divisive national issues do not even come into play.
Straight ticket voting is a remnant of the days when party bosses and ward heelers told people who to vote for and made sure the votes were cast for every candidate in a party.
Party workers should strive for that, but if all of their candidates win, it should be due to their merit, and not because of an archaic device like the straight-ticket vote.
3 comments:
Why not go a step further and eliminate the requirement of party affiliations for county offices? Does it matter whether the county clerk, or recorder, or treasurer, or prosecutor, or sheriff, or coroner, etc, is a Democrat or a Republican?
I disagree, Randy. I would hate to think that any legitimate vote someone casts is a "disgrace." That, I believe, is one of the great things about this country - you can vote any way you please....I don't believe there are many who vote a straight ticket (my father always claimed he voted a straight Democrat ticket, but I have my doubts...) but if a person wants to vote a straight ticket in every election that is his privilege and his right.
I fail to see anything disgraceful about that.
Kay Hively
Although I agree with Kay that the word disgrace may be harsh, I do agree with Randy that straight ticket voting should be dropped.
This does not stop the concerned voters from supporting thier candidates on a particular ticket, but it keeps them from abusing thier responsibility of casting a vote for each person they want in office without them becoming lazy and casting votes for someone by only marking one place on a ballot.
Our elections are a freedom that we should take pride in and we should always exercise our right and priviledge to cast votes for individuals we choose to put in office and not become lost and wondering sheep, trusting someone else to tell us what to do and without taking a few more seconds out of our day to look at the individual names they will just assume everybody on a particular ticket must be the right one because that's what they were told to do by the party leaders.
I too have never and will never be so irresponsible to just make one mark on a ballot, even if I cast all of my votes for one party, which I haven't done yet, I will take time to look at every race and choose individually.
In addition to eliminating straight ticket voting, I would like to see us be strickter about encouraging people to vote by dropping them from the voter rolls if they are inactive for more than two concecutive elections. As I said earlier get involved and vote, it is a right and a priviledge that many are wasting and I know civic clubs and churches that are stricter about attendence and participation than our voting public.
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