West Virginia has always elected members of its highest state court on a partisan basis. That court is called the State Supreme Court of Appeals. Senators Evan Jenkins (D-Huntington) and Frank Deem (R-Vienna) have introduced SB 136, to change elections for that office to non-partisan elections.
If the bill passes, there may be some reason for the West Virginia legislature to also eliminate the straight-ticket device. Otherwise, based on the experience of certain other states, one can predict that many voters will inadvertently not vote for Supreme Court candidates.
Like other states, that court is just a good ole boys club. No surprise that WV is a disaster. If they drop partisan labels from the Court ballot they might as well stop letting the people vote for this office at all, for there will be no interest in or knowledge of these races. Oh, wait, could that be the legislature’s point…?
As long as the Democrats are in control, they will not eliminate straight ticket voting. Otherwise, they could not tell their voters to “pull the rooster tail” (the ballot symbol of the Democrat party in WV is the rooster, Repubs use the federal eagle – goes back to the days of making it easier to vote for percieved illiterate voters).