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I've listened to some of my fellow candidates in Democratic safe districts complain about the lack of a straight ticket. I don't get what their problem is considering that the straight ticket made little to no difference to them, but has destroyed any chance for Democrats to win in Republican or swing districts in the past.
The partisan enclaves are still there even without the straight ticket, and candidates in those parties will still have an edge, but not an edge so great that people who don't work hard from the opposite parties won't have a chance.
This improves the race on both side, because perhaps the only thing worse than a candidate who doesn't think they can win is a politician who doesn't think they can lose.
Before 2006, we had no data to prove this, but thankfully the Secretary of State's office counted Straight Ticket ballots just in time for them to be rightfully removed, and those in the enclaves would not have seen their margins changed for the most part.
On the Democratic side, the Upper Valley wouldn't be touched. Grafton 9 (Hanover/Lyme), the safest State Rep District in the State for Democrats, had no Republicans run; and Grafton 11 (Lebanon Wards 1-3) would have seen the Democrats lose 863 votes, leaving a margin of 332 votes between the lowest vote getter among the Democrats and the highest vote getter among the Republicans.
In Keene, the same rings true. There still would have been seven Democrats taking the seven seats there, only with the margin of victory between 7th place and 8th place being 413 rather than 1656.
The same thing happens again and again throughout the Democratic strongholds, which is to be expected since 2006 was a Democratic year anyway, but what about the Republican strongholds?
If there was not a straight ticket vote in 2006, Democrats would have won even more seats.
Hillsborough 18 (Bedford) was the opposite end of the spectrum from Hanover, with Republicans receiving 665 more straight ticket votes than Democrats, but it would have taken another 629 votes for any Democrat to get past the GOP sweep there.
Likewise in with the GOP 7 seat sweep in Belknap 5 (Alton, Barnstead, Belmont and Gilford), where no straight ticket would have netted Democrats 73 votes, but there was a difference of 260 votes between 7th place and 8th place, but that's about it.
There still would have been a recount in Rockingham 11 (East Kingston and Newton), as Mary Allen(r) won the seat by one vote, she only got an extra 16 votes from straight ticketing according to SOS figures.
The GOP sweep in Rockingham 3 (Windham/Salem) would have changed. In that district, Republicans gained 428 votes from straight ticketing, but there were three Democrats who were within that margin.
There were also two Democrats within less than 70 votes in Rockingham 5 (Derry), but Republicans got a bonus 556 votes from straight tickets.
The only district where Democrats would have lost ground is in Hillsborough 14 (Manchester Ward 7), and that was one seat.
Here in Merrimack, we've been a conservative town in the past, but we're becoming a swing town. In '06, there were 18 more Democratic straight tickets than Republican straight tickets believe it or not. I'm not going to weep over losing those 18 votes in exchange for the peace of mind in knowing that in districts like mine, even in bad years, Democrats can win if they work hard.
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