On December 16, the Michigan legislature passed SB 13, which eliminates the straight-ticket device. See this story.
The Michigan legislature also repealed the device in late 2001, but then the Democratic Party put a referendum on the ballot, and in November 2002 the voters voted to keep the device. That bill, SB 173, also made changes to the law concerning provisional ballots and voter registration. The voters had to either reject the entire bill or approve of it, so it is not clear that a majority of the 2002 voters really liked the device, or whether they voted against the bill because of its other provisions. UPDATE: SB 13 has an appropriation inside it, so the bill can’t be subject to a referendum petition.
Straight-ticket devices are very harmful to independent candidates. The bill hasn’t been signed yet, but Governor Rick Snyder is a Republican, so he will probably sign it. The other states with the device are Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.
John Engler (Republican) was governor of Michigan when the device was repealed the first time. But, party doesn’t necessarily mean anything because Earl Ray Tomblin (Democrat) is the current governor of West Virginia and he signed our repeal earlier this year.
Is this like the old days of having just to vote for a symbol to get a straight ticket device? Folks who couldn’t read could use symbols.
David, you are thinking of logos. A logo and a straight-ticket device are two different things. Some states have a logo for each party (a little cartoon picture representing a party) but no straight-ticket device. Other states have straight-ticket devices but no logo.