Tag: voting

Straight-Ticket Voting Hit 100 Percent in 2016

Buck Banks

100%

The 2016 election saw the largest wave of straight-ticket results for president and the U.S. Senate since the 17th Amendment established the popular election of senators in 1913 — another indication of the intense political polarization in the United States, according to Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball. All 33 states with Senate elections decided this year backed the same party for president and Senate.

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Perkins: Rich Americans Should Have More Votes

Buck Banks

The Tom Perkins system is: You don’t get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes. But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How’s that?

— Venture capitalist Tom Perkins, suggesting that “only taxpayers should have the right to vote — and that wealthy Americans who pay more in taxes should get more votes,” CNN Money reports. “The audience at the Commonwealth Club reacted with laughter. But Perkins offered no immediate indication that he was joking.”

Floridians Were All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Vote

Trish

201,000

Number of Floridians disenfranchised on Election Day 2012 because of long lines, according to new research on voter patterns and precinct-closing times which showed turnout fell by 2.3% for each hour of waiting. Republicans in Florida’s state houses cut the number of early voting days while crowding the ballot with 11 constitutional amendments that totaled more than 3,000 words (or about six college-level term papers), resulting in up to a five-hour wait in some precincts. The study was narrowly structured, but its researcher suspected even more people missed voting. “My gut is telling me that the real number deterred is likely higher,” he said.

In Florida, A Felony Conviction is Forever When It Comes to Voting

Trish

78

Number of felons who have completed their sentences or been paroled and had their voting rights restored in Florida under Gov. Rick Scott (R/Tea) in 2011. By contrast, in 2007 when Charlie Crist (R/NPA) was governor, 38,871 former felons were allowed to vote again. The Florida Parole Commission has a current backlog of 21,197 applications even as a study by FPC showed that ex-felons whose civil rights are restored are less likely to re-offend.