Small: Straight-party voting a cop-out for losing candidates

Straight-party voting a cop-out for losing candidates

By Jonathan Small

Following this month’s election results, some officials claim straight-party voting is a major problem in Oklahoma. They imply many Oklahomans really wanted to vote for candidates from the other party but instead simply checked the straight-party option. Some Democrats suggest their failure in top-of-the-ballot races are a byproduct of straight-party ballots.

That’s believable only if you ignore common sense. The most high-profile race in Oklahoma this year was the governor’s race. It was literally the top spot on the ballot. Are we to believe voters really wanted to vote for Democratic candidate Joy Hofmeister rather than Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt (or vice versa) but instead checked the straight-party box and never looked a few inches down their ballots?

General Elections Results - Average Percentage

Click here for the entire Muskogee Politico series of election results maps.

This is the granddaddy of all of my election results maps: the average percentage graphic. I plugged in all of the vote totals for every statewide race, plus the straight party voting totals, and this is what it came to.

Granted, this does not show results for state legislative and congressional races (although it does have straight party voting for each), but nothing shows the true extent of the GOP tidal wave here in Oklahoma like this map does.

Averaged out, only one county (Coal County) had more Democrat votes than Republican votes. It also shows that the Democrats traditional stronghold of Little Dixie is shrinking rapidly, from all directions.

Voter registration and voting are now trending heavily in the Republicans favor. Oklahoma Democrats, watch out for 2012...

General Election Results - Legislative Straight-Party Voting

Click here for the entire Muskogee Politico series of election results maps.

This is the map for straight-party voting on state legislative races (State House and State Senate). For other straight-party voting maps, go here for the state-level statewide races, and here for the federal-level races.

This particular map is somewhat deceptive, as not all counties had legislative races (competitive or otherwise), and in many cases only a small portion of the county had a legislative election. For example, Pontotoc County had a grand total of 127 state legislative straight-party votes, while they had 2,850 federal straight-party votes, and 3,101 statewide-office straight-party votes. Take this particular map with a grain of salt.

General Election Results - Federal Straight-Party Voting

Click here for the entire Muskogee Politico series of election results maps.

This is the map for straight-party voting on federal races (U.S. House and U.S. Senate). Click here for the state-level statewide races.

General Election Results - Statewide Straight-Party

Click here for the entire Muskogee Politico series of election results maps.

Important note: this is the map for straight-party voting on statewide races, such as Governor, Attorney General, Auditor, et cetera. This is not the straight-party voting map for federal races (U.S. Senate, U.S. House) or for state legislative races (State Senate, State House).