SJL: Vote Straight Democratic Ticket or else!

[Z1166]

Apologies if this was already posted, but SJL set a new low in my opinion. And sorry if you're not a Michael Berry fan, but this is where I could find the audio: http://www.ktrh.com/player/?station=KTR ... d=22583708 starting at about the 16-minute mark.

"Vote the straight Democratic ticket, which includes the president and all of us. Do not, after voting the straight Democratic ticket, vote individually -- it will cancel your vote!"

Just....wow.

[jimlongley]

Apologies if this was already posted, but SJL set a new low in my opinion. And sorry if you're not a Michael Berry fan, but this is where I could find the audio: http://www.ktrh.com/player/?station=KTR ... d=22583708 starting at about the 16-minute mark.

"Vote the straight Democratic ticket, which includes the president and all of us. Do not, after voting the straight Democratic ticket, vote individually -- it will cancel your vote!"

Just....wow.

Obviously either doesn't understand how the voting machines work, or thinks he can fool/scare voters into just voting straight ticket.

In a twisted manner, he's right. If you take the straight ticket option and then go and change your selection on page three, for example, of your ballot, your straight ticket will be essentially erased and you will need to go through and make ALL of the selections individually. This is how voting machines work, including and especially paper ballots. In the electronic machines that I am acquainted with, the selection of straight ticket merely checks one box, and if you then select a different option farther down the ballot, it voids the straight ticket option. In the electronic machines you will get a message at the end of the balloting process, before you finish casting your ballot, notifying you that you have choice(s) that you did not fill in, and you have the option of going back and fixing YOUR errors. If you are like most of the unknowing and uncaring, you will skip that option and thereby cast a ballot only for the individual selection(s) you made, you have not canceled your vote, you just never took the time to follow instructions and vote properly so your vote will only be fore those you actually voted for.

That's how I used to teach it when I was teaching election districts how to use their voting machines.

On a paper ballot, usually the "straight ticket" option is the top of the ballot, and if you check that box, you are expected not to make any other marks on the ballot. If you decide to vote straight ticket, and then decide to vote for great aunt Tilly's grandson's friend in another party on page three of the ballot, then you have indeed voided the whole ballot. In districts that use paper balloting and a local counter, this "error" should be noted when you take your ballot to the front and it is run through the counter before you leave, and you should get a chance to correct it. In districts that use batch or centralized counting, or on mail in ballots, and "errors" as above merely void the ballot and you don't get a chance for a do over.

Also as I taught in my classes.

Why is the ballot void in those few cases? Because the counting machine (assuming it is being used) does not know what the heck you mean by voting a straight ticket and then selecting someone not on that ticket farther down the ballot.

In the machines I taught on, which don't work all that differently from any of the others I am acquainted with, such ballots are shunted into a separate bin where an election official can then attempt to ascertain the correctness of the ballot (if the machine has a problem) and if it should be counted manually (a vanishingly small percentage) or just counted as void. When I was doing election support we had some good laughs at void ballots and the mistakes on them, such as the person who filled in straight ticket and then voted for each and every candidate on the column too.

[77346]

Jim,

I listen to Michael Berry on my way back home... The one that said this "Vote the straight Democratic ticket, which includes the president and all of us. Do not, after voting the straight Democratic ticket, vote individually -- it will cancel your vote!" is Sheila Jackson Lee...

MB was just making fun of how idiotic her remarks are... I don't think he was trying to scare anyone into voting a straight ticket... it was SJL who's trying to do that.

[bizarrenormality]

If they follow her advice to vote straight ticket and no mas, maybe the property owners in Harris County can defeat the bond issues that are usually passed by people who don't pay property tax in the county.

[saltydog452]

What, or Who, is SLJ?

[RottenApple]

What, or Who, is SLJ?

I listen to Michael Berry on my way back home... The one that said this "Vote the straight Democratic ticket, which includes the president and all of us. Do not, after voting the straight Democratic ticket, vote individually -- it will cancel your vote!" is Sheila Jackson Lee...

[KC5AV]

Sheila Jackson Lee.

[jimlongley]

Jim,

I listen to Michael Berry on my way back home... The one that said this "Vote the straight Democratic ticket, which includes the president and all of us. Do not, after voting the straight Democratic ticket, vote individually -- it will cancel your vote!" is Sheila Jackson Lee...

MB was just making fun of how idiotic her remarks are... I don't think he was trying to scare anyone into voting a straight ticket... it was SJL who's trying to do that.

Well, then I was right to begin with, Sheila Jackson Lee has no idea how balloting actually works, much less the voting machines themselves, she has always been elected by "ghost ballot."