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Urgent!!! NC Voters, Dont Vote Straight Ticket!!!

DaleMabry

DaleMabry

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North Carolina Straight Ticket Confusion
Voting Straight Ticket in North Carolina does NOT include the Presidential contest.

NC voters threw away 92,000 votes for President in 2004 because of confusing law. Other states report problems in ballot miscounts due to straight ticket programming errors.

"The offices of President and Vice President of the United States are not included in a Straight Party vote. This contest must be voted separately."


NC is the only state in the US where straight ticket voting does not count for President. Our state has one of the highest undervote rates for President in the Country because of this.

Miscounts - Voters Unite reports that misprogramming caused straight-party votes to be dropped or counted for the opposite candidate, for example, in Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin
http://www.votersunite.org/info/straight_party.asp

Lack of voter education. The 3 million + voter guides mailed to households all over North Carolina do not mention North Carolina's straight ticket exception. That straight ticket voting does not count for the President is nonsensical and counter-intuitive, the instructions on the ballot are confusing. Recent feedback from early voting poll workers and observers indicates that many voters do not understand how the straight ticket voting option, or that it IS optional.

NC Straight Ticket Voting Facts:
President - straight ticket voting does not count for President You must vote separately for President.
Non Partisan - straight ticket doesn't count for non partisan contests (like Judicial).
Multi Seat Contests - If you vote straight ticket but you also cross over vote, your party choices are erased in that multi seat race. You will have to go back and mark your party choices in that multi seat race.
Straight Ticket is optional. You do not have to select the "straight party". Just make your choices separately.

If using the "straight ticket" option on your ballot - vote in three steps with a flip:

1. Vote for President,
2. Vote Straight ticket option
3. Flip the ballot over and vote for Judicial Contests and local non partisan contests.

If voters can remember to Vote 1-2-3, they can ensure that their vote fully counts.
Click to expand...

http://www.ncvoter.net/straightticket.html


RALEIGH, N.C. -- "I was sure I voted for president, but then a friend told me that a straight-party vote in North Carolina includes every office except president. That made me really mad," Linda Chavis told OffTheBus.

Politically speaking, Chavis didn't just fall off the turnip truck. She is a volunteer "crew chief" for the Obama campaign in Raleigh who did not notice the separation between the straight-party vote and the presidential vote on North Carolina's poorly designed ballot in 2004. "I thought I voted against George W. Bush, but it turned out I didn't vote for president at all. It's an issue today because we're still using the same confusing ballot," said Chavis.

Chavis wasn't the only dumbfounded voter in 2004. A Duke University researcher estimated that more than 90,000 people who voted in North Carolina inexplicably did not cast a vote for president. That's 60,000 to 70,000 more than researchers would expect.

"One way to measure the impact of ballot design on voter confusion is the Residual Vote Rate. That's the difference between the number of ballots cast and the number of valid votes for president cast," said David C. Kimball, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. In the last two presidential elections, the number of lost votes for president was "about twice as high in North Carolina as the national average," Kimball told OffTheBus.

"I would guess that most -- if not all -- of this difference can be attributed to North Carolina's confusing ballot," said Lawrence Norden, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. In North Carolina, a straight-party vote counter-intuitively does not include a vote for president. Voters must make a separate mark under the Presidential Contest box.

On Election Day 2008, there will probably be more voters than there were in 2004, and many of them will be first-time voters. "I believe as many as 100,000 votes for president could be lost this time around," Norden told OffTheBus.
Click to expand...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/confusing-north-carolina_b_138073.html

MAKE SURE YOU NC VOTERS GET THIS INFORMATION OUT AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE!!! ESP TO FIRST TIME VOTERS!!
 
When I went to vote last week in NC, the volunteers made sure you knew about this before you got to the machine.
Even when you were placing your votes, the directions clearly state a straight party vote dosent include Obama/McCain.
 
GhostRed said:
When I went to vote last week in NC, the volunteers made sure you knew about this before you got to the machine.
Even when you were placing your votes, the directions clearly state a straight party vote dosent include Obama/McCain.
Click to expand...

Exactly. As long as you reviewed all you choice before hitting comfirm TO ENSURE THAT BARACK OBAME HAD THE GREEN CHECK NEXT TO HIS NAME, then you were fine.
 
Yah I heard about that last week, you need to pick each democtat seperately...
 
The Election Officals have been informing EVERYONE about the status of the ballot. They hand out extra info and there are postings all over the place. Also the Ballot is divided so you can see who you are voting for easily.
 

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