Bill Would Eliminate Straight Party Voting

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A bill to end straight party voting is heading to the state Senate.<br/><br/>The bill by Senator Debbe Leftwich would eliminate the option of marking a box to vote for all the candidates

Wednesday, February 14th 2007, 2:09 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A bill to end straight party voting is heading to the state Senate.

The bill by Senator Debbe Leftwich would eliminate the option of marking a box to vote for all the candidates of a single political party.

Leftwich says the problem is voters have to mark at least two or three boxes on the ballot and many voters don't realize that.

She says a voter could mark the ballot as straight party for statewide races -- but if they don't mark it again for local races the person would not have voted in the local election. And she says many voters also don't realized judicial candidates don't run as Democrats or Republicans and fail to vote in those races.

The bill was passed out of the Senate Rules Committee today and goes to the full Senate for consideration.