With the recent discussion of straight ticket voting in the press, I would like to offer my personal experience.

I ran for state Senate District 5 (Providence) as a Green Party candidate. In votes cast for the individual, I won the election with 1,469 votes. The Democrat received 1,156 votes by name, while the Republican received 89.

But when adding straight-ticket votes, I lost. The Democrat received 1,994 straight party votes and the Republican received 184. With all due respect, both of my opponents received more “party” votes than “person” votes.

As a third-party candidate, I received no straight-party votes. Third-party candidates must work to overcome difficult ballot access laws to gain straight-party status — for which the Green Party did not qualify for in 2006.

However, even if acquired, straight-ticket status does not help third parties that lack name recognition. More importantly, independent candidates cannot qualify for straight-ticket status.

Straight-ticket voting hurts our democracy. It gives an unfair advantage to candidates of major parties who benefit from top-of-the-ticket advertising. In 2006, with Rhode Island a battleground state for the U.S. Senate race, we saw tremendous money spent on party promotion, which worked against independent and third-party candidates.

In my race, straight-ticket voting was nearly 40 percent of the vote. Democracy shouldn’t be about “marketing” a political party but about electing individual candidates who best embody the values of their community.

Rhode Island is one of only 17 states that still uses straight-ticket voting in some form. It’s time Rhode Island did away with straight-ticket voting to improve our democracy.

JEFF TOSTE

Providence