Straight Ticket Voting System May Still Be Studied

Legislation to eliminate Indiana’s straight ticket voting system – or even to study its elimination – failed to clear the General Assembly this session.  But some lawmakers – including legislative leaders – say a study committee on the issue is still possible.

Straight ticket voting allows people to vote for every candidate from one party with one check of a box on their ballot.  A bill eliminating the practice cleared the House.  But the Senate changed the measure, instead seeking to create a study committee on the topic.  And the legislation still failed on the Senate floor – though that was due to another issue in the bill.  Senate GOP Leader David Long says he thinks examining the issue before next session is worth the effort.

“You probably want to find out what other states have experienced by doing that," Long said. "Because we have about a three-minute limit, I think, on voting in the booth and I can predict that it will take a lot longer to vote.”

Albion Republican Rep. Dave Ober, who authored the elimination bill, says the question of longer wait times was the most common concern he heard.

“I think that there were more unanswered questions about that than anything else and a study could definitely help us figure out what that impact might be,” Ober said. 

Legislative leaders will meet this week to announce which issues they’ve assigned to study committees.