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Claim: Voters need to be cautious when using "straight ticket" voting in the upcoming presidential election.
Examples:
Origins: Some voters choose to select candidates individually regardless of party affiliation (i.e., they may vote for a Republican candidate for one office but a Democratic candidate for another office), and some
The first forwarded item quoted above warns voters that their voting a straight ticket may not result in their casting a ballot for their party's presidential
Imagine you are a first time voter with a desire to vote straight
The second forwarded example quoted above (which initially references New Mexico but provides a Houston phone number) warns about the reverse situation: That erring on the side of caution and marking a ballot for a presidential candidate in addition to selecting a straight ticket option could deselect your presidential choice or produce a ballot that would be considered spoiled in locations where voting regulations do not exclude presidential races from straight ticket voting. The origin of this claim seems to be a problem with voting machines in a New Mexico county that were discovered to be incorrectly tabulating results for ballots marked for a straight ticket during a If you followed those directions, filled in the Democratic or Republican oval in the Straight Party Voting section and then left, you might think you'd just voted for president. But you would be wrong. On North Carolina's ballot, the presidential contest is not included in the list of "Partisan Offices." In order to cast a vote for president and a straight party vote, you need to make two A state law passed in 1967 prohibits the combination of the vote for the president with any other office on the ballot.
A glitch that would have kept votes from being counted in the presidential and other top-of-the-ticket races was discovered during a pre-election check of a voting machine in Santa Fe County, officials said.
The best advice to ensure your votes count as you intend is to study a sample ballot in advance, read the ballot and voting instructions provided to you at the polling place carefully before casting your vote(s), and ask a poll worker for assistance if you are unsure about any aspect of the voting procedures. If you think you may have spoiled your ballot, do not hesitate to report the situation to a poll worker.
The error was found and corrected the same day, said Denise Lamb, who heads the elections bureau in the county clerk's office. The problem in the coding of the machine's memory card would have prevented the tabulating machine from counting the votes in the presidential, Another thing to keep in mind is that some political parties may not field candidates for every single partisan office on a ballot, so by selecting a straight ticket you may end up not voting at all in some races. Therefore, if you plan to vote a straight ticket, you might want to review your ballot first to verify that your party has a candidate running for every partisan office listed (and also be sure to cast votes for non-partisan offices not included in the straight ticket selection process). As they say, "If you're going to take the time to vote, take a few extra seconds and make every vote count." Last updated: 16 October 2008 Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2009 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.  Sources:
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