EDITORIAL: It's time to do away with the option to vote a straight ticket

A voter using Monroe County’s paper ballots marks the bubble casting straight-party vote for the Democrats. Then, the voter goes down the ballot and marks two of the three Democrats and one Republican running in an at-large race in which the top three vote-getters are elected. The law would require the straight-party votes in the at-large race to be thrown out, meaning the only vote recipient would be the Republican.

That certainly would not reflect the voter’s intent, and that’s what the Legislature is trying to address with Senate Bill 61. The Senate Elections Committee on Monday voted for a solution that does not go far enough and may further complicate matters.

Members of the committee talked about the complexity of instructions that would be needed with some solutions, and the possibility voters would skip over certain races with others. They passed the bill out of committee, but fretted over the complicated issue and the fact that there’s no perfect solution.

While it might not be perfect for all, there is a straightforward solution. Just do away with the opportunity to cast a straight-party vote.

State Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, argued for that earlier in the session when he talked about his bill, Senate Bill 391, which the committee did not vote to approve.

“I firmly believe, philosophically, that a voter should know who they are voting for and have the chance to actually read the candidates’ names on the ballot before they cast their ballot. That’s what this is really about,” he said at a previous committee meeting.

It was at that same hearing Robbins’ concerns about confusion and voter intent came up. Those are real concerns, but they would go away with the simple solution of taking away the option of voting for the party over individual candidates.

Opponents of that simple solution argued it could create longer lines at polling places. The longer lines would occur only if voters actually took the time to think about the choices they were making, rather than punching one button. More thought per race would be a positive.

In addition, the ability to vote early, vote by mail, the possibility of vote centers could all be used to mitigate any time concerns.

Finally, other states don’t seem to have serious problems. Indiana is one of only nine states that still allow straight-party voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The others are Alabama, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Iowa, Texas, Kentucky, Utah and Oklahoma. Five states have discontinued the practice in the past five years: West Virginia, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, North Carolina and Michigan.

Our lawmakers shouldn’t get hung up on finding an elaborate fix based on voter intent. Simply require voters to mark each race as they come to it on the ballot by discontinuing straight-party voting.