Will Record Low Congressional Approval Reflect In The Voting Booth?

Congressional Approval Rating At All Time Low Of 10 PercentWith all the controversies in D.C. going on, is it really surprising to find out that Congress’s approval rating is at an all time low? According to a new Gallup poll, that rating has fallen to a mere 10%. That rank places it last among 16 institutions that Gallup listed. People have lower confidence in Congress than they do banks, the criminal justice system and the police. Even HMOs rank higher than Congress.

The percentage of Americans expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress is the lowest for a trend that dates back to 1973. The high point for Congress, 42%, came in that year.

Confidence in Congress has been at its lowest points for several years, while it was higher in the mid-1980s and in the early 2000s.

And this rating shows across all political ideologies. Continue reading

Straight Party Voting Is Bad For Everyone

Sample Straight Party Voting BlockWhile the primary focus of Oklahomans For Ballot Access Reform has been on Oklahoma’s draconian restrictions of the formation of new parties, that is far from the only thing wrong with Oklahoma election law. There are a number of things including our primary run-off system as well as the focus of this article, Straight Party Voting. Straight Party Voting is a system in which a voter selects a party of preference rather than voting on specific candidates. This party choice is reflected on all partisan elections on the ballot. This means that if a voter chooses the Democratic Party option on the ballot, that choice is reflected on all partisan races as if she had voted for the Democratic candidates in those races.

There are two major flaws with this voting device. The first being that Independent candidates are not represented in this system. The second being that not all races have a candidate from all qualified parties. Continue reading