request for information - undervotes and straight party

[garybeck]

this request is not for me directly. a researcher is looking for this information:

I went looking for the following information: the under-votes in the states that had the straight party option. Is there still a list of final tallies by state of the entire country that I could go to from where I could get the under-vote totals? I googled under-vote by state and did not find satisfactory information. Do I have to go to every state's Secretary of State's website for the information? Has not someone in our many groups groups done it?

If someone has this information please reply here or PM me

thanks
gary

------------------------------------
the solar bus
ELECTION JUSTICE CENTER
your home for updated information on the fight for democracy in America
http://election.solarbus.org
------------------------------------

[garybeck]

1. kick for some help n/t

[Bill Bored]

2. I don't have that but here are the states that allowed straight party

voting in 2004: AL, IA, IN, KY, MI, MO, NC, NH, NM, OK, PA, RI, SC, TX UT, WI and WV.

NC and SC require a separate vote for President.

PA allows cross-party selections to override straight-party selections.

Also note that in Diebold jurisdictions, undervotes for President may be referred to as "blank votes."

[tommcintyre]

3. kick

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. North Carolina undervote study, by machine type, 2000 to 2004

First of all, in NC, if a voter selects the "straight ticket" option on the ballot, they will have to additionally cast a vote for President and Vice President.

Charlotte Observer | 10/25/2004 | Straight-ticket voting not as ...
In North Carolina, the straight-ticket discrepancy clearly has an effect: Four years ago, NC voters filled out 3015964 ballots, but only 2914990 included ...
www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/10007894.htm


Just voting straight ticket doesn't count for Pres. This is a horrible problem that was caused by Dems, who made it a law about 20 years ago.

For good info and analysis, see Justin Moore's page on NC voting data, undervotes analysis etc.
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/voting/

Look for the following, which will have links to full info:

Statistical Analysis of North Carolina Voting Technologies

A link for formatted election results from the 2000 and 2004 North Carolina general elections.
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/voting/dat/index.html

An analysis of undervote rates broken down by technologies.
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/voting/totals.html

An analysis of how undervote rates in North Carolina changed between 2000 and 2004. Charts are avaiable both with
(http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/voting/2000-2004-delta.html )
and without (http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/voting/2000-2004-delta-nc.html) Carteret County included. An undervote (or residual vote) is one in which a voter goes to the poll but does not cast a vote because they can't bring themselves to vote for either -- or the only -- candidate, they don't know enough about the candidate, or they do cast a vote but technology in use does not record that they cast a vote.

Check out per-precinct undervote rates for state-wide races.
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/voting/undervotes/index.html
This data is a combination of the raw results and the raw voter history/turnout statistics from the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.

[Bill Bored]

5. Have you seen Febble's paper on NM undervotes?

I recommend it.

http://uscountvotes.org/ucvAnalysis/NM/NMAnalysis_EL_JM.pdf

[demodonkey]

6. Here's A Link From PA, Gary...

Pennsylvania has straight party voting with "The Pennsylvania Option" to overrride any vote cast as part of a straight ticket by simply voting again for that race. The second vote cancels out the vote FOR THAT OFFICE (only) on that voter's straight ticket vote.

Here are some links that may help:

Link to many County Websites:
http://www.dos.state.pa.us/voting/cwp/view.asp?a=1195&q=443089&votingNav=|

Suggest you look at Election Bureau sites, especially in counties which used DRE, op scan, or punch card. MANY have Election Returns posted (but you will have to look on county websites for counties' info as to straight party undervotes).

All PA Counties Election Bureaus Here:
http://www.dos.state.pa.us/voting/cwp/view.asp?a=1195&q=443005&votingNav=|

Hope this helps...