How to Cast Your Votes For A Straight Democratic Ticket

For those who want to vote a straight Democratic ticket this year, and haven't done this before, let me assure you that it is a snap.

I have only used the Hart Intercivic "dial a vote" machine since optical scanners went the way of Betamax, so take that as a caveat. But this thing is fast. 

In fact it is so fast that I like to casually but carefully scroll down the ballot checking that the machine has placed red pixels in every Democratic candidate's check box, and no Repubican candidate has any box filled in with red pixels.

Now if you live in Senate District 17, the first thing you see after entering your 4-digit code is the State Senate special election ballot. All you have to do there is dial over to Chris Bell and push the enter button, then you are given the Straight Ticket menu where you can opt for either Democratic, Republican, or Libertarian Party straight ticket. Dial over to Democratic, push Enter and you immediately see a results screen where all Democratic candidates are in bold, with the black box next to them filled with red, and the other candidates are "grayed out."

The next screen is your summary screen showing which candidates will receive your vote.

Once you are assured that the summary screen is correct, then you can be reasonably certain that the machine has your vote, and you just push the red "Cast Ballot" button.

That last step is rather crucial.