The mid-term election is less than two weeks away. That means speeches, buttons, and yard signs—lots of yard signs. One reads “vote the ticket.” The message is for voters to use what’s known as straight ticket voting. With the stroke of a pen, Alabamians can choose to go all Republican or all Democrat. Our state is just one of six in the U.S. where voters can do that. It's one of two hurdles in the race for the state’s newly redrawn U.S. House seat in District two.
Lynn Thornton was born and raised in Dothan, Alabama. She never misses an election. On November 3, she'll join other voters in predictably red Houston County, choosing between incumbent Democrat Shomari figures and his challenger, Republican Rep. Marcus, for U.S. Congress.
“For the most part, my values align with the Republican Party, and so I generally will vote on the straight Republican ticket,” she said.
Thornton says this year will be no exception. Like Thornton, in the 2024 general election, more than two thirds of Alabamians who went to the polls voted straight ticket. That is, they bubbled in an R or a D at the top of the ballot, rather than choosing candidates one by one. Thomas Shaw teaches political science at the University of South Alabama. He says, with a Republican super majority, there's no appetite to change the way Alabamians vote.
“The perception, at least, is that I think Republicans Alabama feel like a benefit zone,” said Shaw.
“For Congressman Shomari Figures, who is black, straight ticket voting is one of two potential obstacles. The other is the new map put in place by the Alabama legislature in June, following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act. Figures' second congressional district was originally created as an opportunity district for a second black representative, under the reconfigured map, black voting age population fell from roughly 48 to 40 percent. Despite recent straight ticket Republican voting in a majority of the new district, Figure says that 40 percent is still enough to win.
“We have the privilege, you know, in this race that we're running in. You know, the largest county in the district is overwhelmingly a Democratic county, and that's Montgomery,” he said.
Almost a third of registered voters in the redrawn district live in Montgomery. Claire Wheel is one of those. She plans on voting for figures. Weal isn't a fan of straight ticket voting.
“You're not really informed. If you're voting a straight ticket, you are voting for a for a party, and there are people in each party. I'm not going to say it's one party or the other. There are people that you probably would do best to vote against,” said Wheel.
A former Montgomery school board representative, Weil says she won as a Democrat in a district that leaned Republican, and hopes figures can too.
“But I think you have to get out, knock on doors, and people have to know who you are,” she added.
And it's it's difficult to overcome in some areas to overcome the wanting to hit just one button to be done with your voting, to overcome hurdles in his race, figures on his team have ramped up efforts to get out the vote, and he says people are motivated.
“I think the excitement is there. I think the anger is there,” said Figures. “I think the tolerance level has been reached in terms of what people are willing to tolerate from the Trump administration and Republican leaders in general.
Republican challenger Rep. Marques declined an interview request to talk about straight ticket voting, but sent a text message via his campaign manager saying, "The issue Shomari has to overcome is the fact that he votes with socialists like AOC to sell out Alabamians at every turn.”
AOC refers to New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Despite the rhetoric, some political forecasters show figures making inroads, with his district now leaning Republican rather than likely Republican. Other polls show the candidates nearly tied. Shaw, the political scientist, says a shift in voter enthusiasm toward Democrats could mean more Alabamians show up and vote a split ticket in November.
“It's still going to be a fight for him, but you know if those get out the vote efforts can work, I think there's a blueprint for victory here,” said Shaw.
For those who don't want to give up straight ticket voting, Alabama law allows a voter to mark a straight ticket ballot for one party, and on the same ballot vote for a candidate of the opposite party. The vote for the individual race will count, Shaw says. Predicting voter behavior in any race is something of a guessing game.
“Even right up to election day, you're still going to have a portion of the population, oftentimes two to 6% of the population that says they don't know how they're going to vote, and with numbers like that in a race as tight as this one, voting straight or split ticket could make all the difference,” he said.
