More people in the Nov. 4 election took to heart the motto, "Make It Emphatic, Vote Straight Democratic," according to election results.
Straight ticket voting by Democrats went up, while straight ticket voting by Republicans went down.
Overall, 38,729 people cast straight-ticket ballots, down from 40,111 in 2004, according to official returns. In percentage terms, straight-ticket voting made up 38.61 percent of the ballots this election, down from 42.67 percent in 2004.
All of the decline was due to a 12.53 percent drop in Republicans splitting their tickets or just not showing up at all. Republican voters choosing to vote for every candidate in their party dropped by 3,457, to 24,124. Meanwhile, Democrats saw a 14.58 percent jump in straight-ticket voting. Some 14,067 people cast straight-Democratic ballots, up 1,790 from 2004.
In percentage terms, straight Democratic ballots went up to 14.02 percent of the total votes, from 13.06 in 2004, while GOP ballots went down to 24.05 percent of the total ballots cast, from 29.34 percent.
Democrats made up more than one-third of the straight-ticket voters -- 36.32 percent this election, compared with 30.6 percent four years ago.
That's a trend we like to see.
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