Straight-ticket voting revived
Secretary of state says option will make it easier for voters; GOP says it will sue to block move before Nov. election
Proponents say it will make voting easier.
Critics say it will put Republican, independent and third-party candidates at a big disadvantage.
Either way, New Mexicans for the first time in years will have the option of selecting a straight ticket in November, meaning voters can cast one vote for a party’s slate of candidates rather than fill out an entire ballot.
In announcing the move Wednesday, Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver effectively reversed a 2012 decision by Republican predecessor Dianna Duran and prompted outrage from the GOP, which said it will file a lawsuit in an effort to stop what it characterized as a blatantly partisan attempt to slant the Nov. 6 election against them.
Toulouse Oliver is living up to a campaign pledge, having said during the 2016 election that she would reinstate straight-party voting. But the move bucks a national trend away from the practice while casting new questions over this year’s election, which features former
Gov. Gary Johnson running for U.S. Senate as a Libertarian, independents in a range of local races and what some polls suggest could be a tight contest for governor.
Still, Toulouse Oliver defended the move as giving voters a choice to streamline the voting process.
“From moms juggling work and kids to elderly veterans who find it hard to stand for long, straight-party voting provides an option for voters that allows their voices to be heard while cutting in half the time it takes them to cast their ballot,” she said.
Under the new system, the top of each ballot will include an option for voting on any major party’s entire slate of candidates — Republican, Democratic or Libertarian. Voters can ignore that option and fill out the ballot as they please. And voters who do choose to vote a straight ticket can still go down the ballot and select candidates from other parties in individual races. So, a ballot will still count if a voter who chooses a straight Democratic ticket then selects a Republican in a race for sheriff.
Straight-party voting will not affect nonpartisan races, such as judges running for retention. And it will not affect ballot questions, such as the constitutional amendment in this year’s election on establishing a state ethics commission.
Even so, Toulouse Oliver, who is up for re-election this year, argued the option eases the election process for the voters who already know they want to support a particular party when they head to the voting booth. Before the option was eliminated, about one-sixth to one-fifth of voters cast straight-party ballots, she said.
And backers agree it is a help to voters amid concerns about turnout.
“At a time when our voting rights are under vicious attack by Republicans, it’s a surprise and honest-to-goodness relief to see a change that makes voting easier,” state Democratic Party Chairwoman Marg Elliston said.
The option has long proven controversial, however.
Critics contend the straight-party choice encourages voters to put party over the qualities of individual candidates.
“It’s not a mater [sic] of voter convenience; it’s a matter of partisan advantage in low information elections,” state Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, wrote on Twitter after Wednesday’s announcement. “Our country needs less vicious partisanship, not more.”
And other parties as well as independents contend the option stacks elections against them in a state where there are more voters registered as Democrats than as members of any other party.
“It’s especially a disadvantage to independent candidates,” said Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News.
There are several independent candidates around the state this year, too, in down-ballot races for Legislature, sheriff as well as county commission seats — including in Santa Fe.
In 2001, the Legislature repealed the section of New Mexico’s election code that ensured voters a straight-party option on the ballots.
However, the state did not expressly ban straight-party voting, and another section of statute says ballots shall “be in the form prescribed by the secretary of state.”
Toulouse Oliver pointed to that provision in reinstating straight-party voting, contending it gives her office the authority to decide whether to provide the option. In turn, she said, it was not necessary to go through the formal rule-making process that would have required collecting public comment on the matter, though her office previously said it would convene hearings prior to such a change.
But Republicans contend the 2001 legislation means there is no legal basis for reinstating straight-party voting.
State Republican Party Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi said the practice is “likely” illegal and that the organization would file suit to stop the move.
“Straight ticket voting is an attempt to rig the system in favor of Democrats and turn New Mexico into a one-party state,” Cangiolosi said in statement.
The Libertarian Party signaled it, too, will take legal action. The clock is ticking, though. Thursday marks 68 days until the election, and officials must send ballots to overseas voters at least 45 days before Election Day.
Even if a court wants to stop straightparty voting, it would have to act quickly.
For now, the move puts New Mexico back on a short list of states that have embraced straight-party voting or are at least stuck with it at the moment.
Only Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Michigan and Utah offer a straight-party option, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. Texas will end straight-party voting in time for the 2020 election.
Michigan moved to outlaw the practice but a federal judge intervened, contending that no longer providing a straight-party option would be racially discriminatory, citing research that African-Americans were more likely to vote a straight ticket.