Posted on 10/30/2002 7:01:54 AM PST by Phantom Lord
A cure for ticket-splitting headaches
RALEIGH -- Most voters will make a fundamental mistake when they go to the polls Tuesday. We take fierce pride in weighing the merits of each individual candidate, but voting for the party would produce better decisions and stronger government.
The most obvious reason for party voting is that it makes your decision much simpler.
Americans face more frequent elections and far longer ballots than voters in other democracies. We are regularly expected to choose between candidates we don't really know for offices we don't really understand.
How many voters can make an intelligent choice between candidates for District Court judge, state treasurer, or Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor? In reality, many of us simply don't vote in these "down ballot" races. In primaries, we are so much more likely to vote for the candidate whose name appears first that elections officials are forced to produce multiple ballots and rotate the order in which the candidates' names appear.
We may have more information about major offices, but modern campaigns reveal almost nothing about what a candidate will really do in office. Campaigns have become enormously sophisticated marketing efforts designed to make the product (candidate) appear to be whatever the voters seem to want. Professional consultants are increasingly influential, sometimes more so than the candidates who consult with them before deciding what colors to wear or where to take their families for vacation. Issue positions are kept deliberately vague so they will appeal to the widest possible number of voters; attack ads besmirch the opposition with half-truths and distortion; none of this has even a remote relation to governing.
Party is a much better predictor of behavior in office. Decades ago, Alabama Gov. George Wallace charged that there wasn't a "dime's worth of difference" between the parties. The charge probably wasn't true then, but it's definitely not true now. The civil rights revolution caused a fundamental realignment of the parties. The Republicans became a consistently conservative party which promotes tax cuts and, generally speaking, the interests of business, the military and the relatively affluent. The Democrats became more liberal, promoting activist government and the interests of labor, minorities and less affluent Americans.
As the parties became more distinct, they also became more disciplined. Party-line voting has increased in both Congress and state legislatures. Party has long been the best single predictor of how legislators will vote and it's getting better all the time.
There may be some races in which your knowledge of the individual candidates will be a better predictor of performance than party, but they will be few and far between.
This would be reason enough to vote for the party, but doing so also promotes effective, responsible government. Choosing individual candidates produces divided control of government, and the combination of divided government and highly disciplined parties is a disaster.
Divided government means that no party has the power to govern; party disciple makes compromise unlikely; the result is gridlock. Congress recently adjourned without adopting a budget for the fiscal year that has already begun, without passing the bill to establish a Department of Homeland Security, without reducing the number of vacant federal court judgeships and without adopting a prescription drug plan.
Divided government means we don't even know who to blame for this disgraceful state of affairs. Choosing between individual candidates robs us of the ability to do anything about it.
No individual candidate can end gridlock; only party control can do so. If we had unified party control we'd also know who to blame or who to credit for whatever the government does.
The reasons to vote for the party are especially strong this year. Party control of both houses of Congress is up for grabs and redistricting has put both chambers of the General Assembly in play as well. Which party controls these legislative bodies is far, far more important than which particular individual represents you there. The party that controls a legislative chamber controls the agenda, the committees and the floor.
Political pros understand the importance of party control. Interest groups are funneling millions of dollars into our state and the president has made five trips here this year because the North Carolina race figures strongly in determining which party controls the Senate.
In general, you should vote for the party unless you have overwhelming knowledge about which candidate is best. This year, you should probably vote for the party no matter how much you know about the candidates.
Clyde Frazier teaches politics at Meredith College and is the organizer of Meredith Votes, a voter registration, education and turnout campaign.
I was able to make an intelligent choice all the way down to Township trustee. I only skipped the Library Board(Three running, non partisan, and one of them was a dem - so I left them all blank).
It's called EFFORT.
What a shameful whiny load of crap that is!
Gee of coarse its to hard to actually educate yourself about the candidates and issue that effect your country. So why not just move to Cuba or Iraq where you don't have to worry about it? God help us!
It's called EFFORT.
I say dittos and A-men to that! As a political junkie, I make it a hobby (and/or job) of mine to find out everything I can about EVERYONE on the ballot. I knew exactly how to vote and even made recommendations to my friends about for whom they should vote for school board races.
A REFERENDUM ON PUBLIC ACT 269 OF 2001 – AN ACT TO AMEND CERTAIN SECTIONS OF MICHIGAN ELECTION LAW
Public Act 269 of 2001 would:
Eliminate “straight party” vote option on partisan general election ballots.
Require Secretary of State to obtain training reports from local election officials.
Require registered voters who do not appear on registration list to show picture identification before voting a challenged ballot.
Require expedited canvass if presidential vote differential is under 25,000.
Require ballot counting equipment to screen ballots for voting errors to ensure the accurate tabulation of absentee ballots. Permit voters in polls to correct errors.
Provide penalties for stealing campaign signs or accepting payment for campaign work while being paid as a public employee to perform election duties.
Should this law be approved?
Yes _____ No _____
Family and friends know that I am beyond a political junkie and often ask me to write up a list of candidates for them to take to the polls with them so they 'vote right'.
They have little to no interest in politics, but are smart enough to know it has a direct and major influence on their lives and know that I am a good and honest source on the matter.
So what did the RAT controlled legislature do? They removed party affiliation from judicial ballots so voters will not know what party a judge belongs too, hoping to increase their chances of getting more dems back on the bench.
Please FRmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.
Just a caveat.
CD
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