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Concept
Straight-ticket voting
Summary
In American politics, straight-ticket voting or straight-party voting refers to the practice of voting for every candidate that a political party has on a general election ballot. The term can also refer to a straight-ticket voting option, sometimes known as a master lever, that allows voters to check a box and vote for all of a party's candidates, instead of voting for each race individually.
The vast majority of ballots cast in the United States before the 1960s were straight-ticket ballots. However, straight-ticket voting experienced a steady decline through the 2000s as a result of many political factors. The drift of the Democratic Party away from its roots in the Reconstruction era's Redeemers led to the collapse of straight-ticket voting in the Solid South, as southern voters began to vote for Dixiecrats (Conservative southern Democrats) at the local level while backing Republicans at the national level. At the same time, the Democratic Party moved to the center under Bill Clinton and the New Democrats. With fewer distinctions between the two parties, voters were more likely to focus on the specifics of different candidates.
However, straight-ticket voting experienced a resurgence in the 2010s. The success of the Southern strategy has resulted in Republicans dominating at all levels in the American South, and increasing political polarization has created a large ideological distance between the two parties. Straight-ticket voting has also dominated the West Coast for Democrats at all levels.
Straight-ticket voting options differ from state to state. States that have a straight-ticket voting option include Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, and South Carolina; many other states had straight-ticket options before repealing them.
Iowa repealed its straight-ticket option in 2017.
Indiana abolished the straight-ticket vote for at-large elections in 2016, but retains it for all other partisan races.
Official source
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