About half of Michigan voters used the straight-ticket ballot option in the 2012 presidential election, an MLive survey of county election officials found. About 30 percent of 2012 voters supported the Democratic ticket; 19 percent, the Republican ticket and 1 percent voted straight ticket for a third party. The numbers are based on statistics from 33 Michigan counties that collectively accounted for 85 percent of the 4.5 million ballots cast statewide in 2012. MLive contacted election officials from all 83 Michigan counties, but many did not have the 2012 breakdown for straight-ticket voting, which allows filling out a single bubble to vote for all candidates of one party. About half of Michigan voters used the straight-ticket option in the last presidential election. However, MLive was able to get the data for the state’s largest counties, including Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent, Genesee, Washtenaw, Ingham, Ottawa, Kalamazoo, Saginaw, Livingston, Muskegon, Jackson, Allegan and Bay, as well as 18 smaller counties.
Among the 33 counties that provided data, Wayne — the state’s most populated county and home to Detroit — had the largest percentage of straight-ticket ballots. About 59 percent of all Wayne County ballots used the straight-party option, and Democratic straight-ticket ballots outnumbered the GOP ballots almost 5 to 1.
The No. 2 county in straight-ticket balloting was Ottawa, a Republican stronghold where GOP straight-ticket ballots outnumbered the Democratic ballots 3 to 1.
Among the counties that provided data, the lowest percentage of straight-ticket ballots was in Dickinson County in the Upper Peninsula. But even there, 34 percent of ballots used the straight-ticket option.
Full Article: Half of Michigan voters used straight-ticket ballot option in 2012 | MLive.com.