A bill that would have banned one touch ‘straight ticket’ voting in Utah has gone straight down to defeat. The House Government Operations Committee voted 4-3 Wednesday against the bill, after its sponsor, State Representative Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, said a single vote breeds confusion. “Someone walked up to me at the grocery store the other day and said, ‘I was thrilled to have voted for you this year,’”Arent recounted in a 2News interview, and during testimony before the panel. “And I said, ‘Great.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I voted straight ticket Republican.’ And I said, ‘No, you didn’t actually vote for me.’”
Arent said a retired judge also thought he had voted for Arent, because he voted for Democrats ‘straight ticket.’ But, according to Arent, the ex-jurist lived outside her district—and so that vote also went to somebody else. Republicans on the panel were not buying the ‘confusion’ argument. “Voters are intelligent enough, and can understand these ballots,” said Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab.
“I’m deeply troubled by what seems to me to be a leap of logic, going from—if you have straight party voting, therefore you’re uninformed,” said Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan.
A half dozen people spoke in favor of scrapping the one-touch straight party voting, including Salt Lake County’s elections director, a representative of a group called Utahns for Ethical Government, and a student at the University of Utah.
Full Article: Utah Keeps ‘Straight Ticket’ Voting | KUTV.com.