Straight party vote declines big-time

Did pre-election controversy over Luzerne County’s addition of straight party voting instructions make a difference in the end? Or, faced with a non-stop corruption scandal, were voters more careful in their choices than in the past?

County Election Bureau Director Leonard Piazza compared that to the last municipal election two years ago, when 23 percent of the votes, or 15,300, were straight-party.

Republican Party leaders had objected when the county Election Board reversed an earlier decision and added back controversial instructions for straight-party voting. Republican leaders alleged that Democrats wanted the instructions to encourage more straight-party voting.

But Piazza said the percentage of Democrats out of all straight-party voters was 57.24 percent Tuesday compared to 65.63 percent in 2007.

The Republican percentage increased Tuesday, to 38.43 percent of all straight-party votes compared to 33.99 percent in 2007.

Around 4,000 Republicans voted straight party on Tuesday, compared to 5,200 two years ago.

Piazza said the statistics make him confident that the instructions did not encourage more people to vote straight party.

“I don’t see anything out of the ordinary,” Piazza said. “Republicans fared better in straight-party voting than they have in the past, so the complete opposite happened.”

The added instructions read: “To vote a straight party ballot, select the party of your choice. You may vote for individual candidates in any contest.”

Renita Fennick, executive director of the county Republican Committee, said she believes the party’s public opposition convinced people to avoid straight-party voting.

“It brought attention to the fact that we don’t think it’s a wise way to vote. People should base their selections on the person,” Fennick said.

Piazza said he also believes that intense media coverage about county government and the federal corruption scandal prompted some traditional straight-party voters to select candidates individually.

“People may have been a bit more discerning given all of the news stories,” Piazza said.

Straight-party voting tends to be higher when federal races are on the ballot because voters are more likely to choose candidates individually for local and regional races, Piazza said.

For example, 36.8 percent, or 50,916 of the votes cast in the November 2008 election were straight-party. Of those, 30,489 were Democratic and 19,437 were Republican, county records show.

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Controversy over instructions and an ongoing scandal are cited as possible causes.

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