PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Some 104,300 Rhode Islanders voted "straight party ticket" in the Nov. 6 election, according to the state Board of Elections.
Robert Kando, the board's executive director, said that number includes 73,981 Democrats, 21,070 Republicans and 9,249 Moderates.
That's up from 2010, when 45,795 voters did so in a non-presidential election: 27,573 Democrats; 11,781 Republicans and 6,441 Moderates.
The so-called "master lever" option allows voters to select all candidates of a particular political party with one mark on the ballot, rather than going down the ballot and making choices individually.
The option has been around since 1939 and comes from the days when election machines required voters to physically push a series of levers to vote for individual candidates or the master lever.