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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 16, 2014 02:44 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Eli Evankovich and Rep. Justin J. Simmons |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Election Reform - Straight Party Ballot Voting |
| In the near future we plan to reintroduce legislation that will eliminate the straight-party ballot option in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Straight-party ballot voting is the practice of voting for candidates of the same party for multiple positions by pushing one button on the voting machine. This legislation would not eliminate or prohibit a voter from voting for candidates all from the same party itself. It would merely remove the option of casting one ballot for all candidates of a single party or checking one box to choose a particular party’s candidate in every race. Under this proposal, candidates still would be identified on the ballot by their political party. Pennsylvania is currently one of only fifteen states that have an option to “vote straight-ticket Democrat” or “vote straight-ticket Republican”. We believe that having a straight-party voting option on the ballot creates an election process that is inherently more partisan. Our hope is that if the option of casting a single vote for an entire party is eliminated then votes will be cast based on a candidate’s merit and the issues they stand for, rather than party labels. Please join us in encouraging the decline of overly partisan elections by allowing voters to be more deliberative in the election process |
Introduced as HB2170