Snopes confirms: Voting machines can trip up Straight Ticket Voting

[Taverner]

Sorry if this is a repost


http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/straightticket.asp

[MH1]

1. Only in some states. BUT

this advice is always wise:

The best advice to ensure your votes count as you intend is to study a sample ballot in advance, read the ballot and voting instructions provided to you at the polling place carefully before casting your vote(s), and ask a poll worker for assistance if you are unsure about any aspect of the voting procedures. If you think you may have spoiled your ballot, do not hesitate to report the situation to a poll worker.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some political parties may not field candidates for every single partisan office on a ballot, so by selecting a straight ticket you may end up not voting at all in some races. Therefore, if you plan to vote a straight ticket, you might want to review your ballot first to verify that your party has a candidate running for every partisan office listed (and also be sure to cast votes for non-partisan offices not included in the straight ticket selection process). As they say, "If you're going to take the time to vote, take a few extra seconds and make every vote count."

Also, whatever system you use, you should have an opportunity to review your ballot selections before casting the ballot. You should certainly check that there is a selection for every office, especially for President.

[JPZenger]

2. In North Carolina. Any others????

Snopes says they only know of this being a problem in North Carolina. Anyone know of a problem anywhere else??

[sellitman]

3. Please kick & Rec this story so people here know! NT

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Best advice? Ignore straight ticket voting.

Take the extra two minutes to mark the ballot for each individual, even if every one of them would be covered by the STV.

That way you get a clean ballot, and the opportunity to vote in contests that might not have a Democrat running - a particular slot may have a choice between a Republican, a Libertarian, and a Green, and then you select the one who is closest to your own views.

If you're going to take the time to show up at the polling booth, what does an extra two minutes cost?

[demokatgurrl]

6. And if something goes awry in the machine

DO NOT LEAVE. Stay there until they fix it, or call the cops to take you out kicking and screaming. Just be sure to call the local media while waiting for the cops to arrive.

This is my plan so I PRAY that if something goes wrong, I am in the voting booth.

[HeraldSquare212]

5. I've been feeling this is a tactic by down-ticket Republicans

to avoid a rout up and down the ticket. is this for real?

[AZBlue]

7. K&R - this needs to be known

[Mz Pip]

8. Imagine

the outrage if the machines in Vegas were so screwed up?

If Vegas can runa tight ship on its machines, why the hell can't our election committees?

[Raster]

9. Occam's Razor says "they don't want to."

And why do the machines always seem to favor the rethuglican candidate?

Is it because the voting machines are ALL OWNED BY RETHUGLICANS and their software is proprietary, meaning no independent, unbiased, non-partisan group or entity is allowed to view the code nor verify its accuracy?