My friend Tamara recently alerted me to this diary over at DailyKos. The diarist is sounding the alarm over a potential source of confusion with the voting systems in North Carolina. The gist of it is that, under North Carolina law, voting a straight party ticket doesn’t register any vote for president or vice president. You have to vote for president and THEN you can vote a straight party ticket for the remaining races.
This is a well-known problem. It even has its own Snopes page. The problem causes North Carolina to have the highest under-vote for president in the country, and the law that creates this situation ought to be repealed.
But the problem is a perfect illustration of the rationale for one of my 10 tips for avoiding problems when you vote: Follow all instructions.
Ballot instructions in North Carolina alert the voter to the straight-party-ticket issue. The problem is that too few people take the time to read the instructions. (Which also brings up another of my tips: Take your time.)
So let this be a lesson to you no matter where you vote. Take your time. Read the instructions and follow them. Otherwise, you could end up throwing your vote away.
Cross-posted from Facebook.
