How Straight Was Your Ticket?

The final vote tally is in for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where Pittsburgh is located. The results? There were 69,201 mindless straight party voters in the election. That's right! 27% of the total ballots cast were straight party! This is exactly the kind of thing that gets people like Luke Ravenstahl elected Mayor of Pittsburgh.

Here's how the straight ticket vote broke down by party:

                                            VOTES PERCENT

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 1320)  .  .  .  .     1,320  100.00
REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL .  .  .  .  .   894,156
BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL.  .  .  .  .  .  .   259,126
VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL  .  .  .  .  .  .             28.98

STRAIGHT PARTY COLUMN
VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN )  1

DEMOCRATIC (DEM) .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    52,239   75.49
REPUBLICAN (REP) .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    15,526   22.44
CONSTITUTION (CON)  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         3
GATEWAY SCHOOL BOARD (GSB).  .  .  .  .       203     .29
INDEPENDENT (IND).  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       113     .16
INDEPENDENTS FOR MAS (IMA).  .  .  .  .       294     .42
LIBERTARIAN (LIB).  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        98     .14
REFORM (REF)  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       639     .92
SOCIALIST WORKERS (SOC).  .  .  .  .  .        86     .12

According to the map below, Pennsylvania is one of only 17 states that still permit straight party voting. Now there's something that needs to be changed!