New Hampshire Democrats End Straight Ticket Voting

 New Hampshire is a state that has had straight ticket voting for as long as I have been voting. I don’t know how long the practice has gone on. You simply check the box at the top of the ballot for the party you want to vote for and you are done.

 In New Hampshire the belief has always been that the option to vote straight ticket benefited the party in the majority, so much so that Democrats have been trying to abolish it for years, without success. Democrats still led the charge to end the practice of straight ticket voting even though it helped them regain control in 2006. Why would the end a practice that helped get them elected. Because they think that they are smarter than the voters. They also believe New Hampshire voters are too stupid to understand the straight ticket voting system.

Those who pushed to end the practice said it had been confusing, with some voters selecting a box on the ballot that indicated they were voting for all candidates of one party, then voting for individual candidates from the other party.

It’s too confusing? The ballot tells you right at the top that checking the straight ticket box automatically votes for all candidates in that party, if you don’t understand that than you probably shouldn’t be voting anyway.

 They need to dumb down the voting process for us dim witted, hay seed, cow tipping hicks so that we can more easily vote for the more educated, brilliant, illuminated ones.

 New Hampshire GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen thinks that this move will help Republicans in November.

He believes straight-ticket voting led directly to Republican Jeb Bradley’s loss in the 1st Congressional District to Democrat Carol Shea-Porter as well as the Democratic takeover of the state House of Representatives and the Executive Council.

“Candidates will not be swept in or swept out of office the same as we saw happen in 2006. I expect this means that New Hampshire will be ready for an equilibrium election, where things come back into balance,” he said. “That probably means Republicans end up with a net gain of seats held, especially at the legislative level.”

 I love his optimism, I hope he is right. New Hampshire is at a critical stage right now and we need to get her back on the “right” course.