straight-ticket voting

(noun)

The practice of voting for candidates of the same party for multiple positions. The finished voting ballot would consist of all Democrats or all Republicans, for example.

Related Terms

Examples of straight-ticket voting in the following topics:

  • Party Identification

    • They register as a member of the particular party when registered to vote.
    • In the case of voting for president, since the 1970s, party identification on voting behavior has been increasing significantly.
    • When voting in congressional elections, the trend is similar.
    • While straight ticket voting has declined among the general voting population, it is still prevalent in those who are strong Republicans and strong Democrats.
    • According to Paul Allen Beck and colleagues, "the stronger an individual's party identification was, the more likely he or she was to vote a straight ticket. "

  • Party Identification

    • They register as a member of the particular party when registered to vote.
    • In the case of voting for president, since the 1970s, party identification on voting behavior has been increasing significantly.
    • When voting in congressional elections, the trend is similar.
    • While straight ticket voting has declined among the general voting population, it is still prevalent in those who are strong Republicans and strong Democrats.
    • Voting Shifts by County Between the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Election

  • Party Identification

    • Some people are motivated to vote because they identify very strongly with one party.
    • Oftentimes, people vote according to what party they identify with.
    • Parties count on coalition members to vote for them consistently in elections.
    • Those people who identify with a party tend to vote for their party's candidate for various offices in high percentages.
    • Those who consider themselves to be strong partisans, strong Democrats and strong Republicans respectively, tend to be the most faithful in voting for their party's nominee for office, and are typically the voters who practice straight-ticket voting.

  • The Nomination Campaign

    • Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes, and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.
    • The winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote.
    • They then send a record of that vote to Congress.
    • The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president, acting in his capacity as President of the Senate, and is read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which is elected at the same time as the President.

  • Organizing Campaigns and Elections

    • Aside from the process of nominating a presidential candidate, the DNC and RNC's roles in selecting candidates to run on the Democratic and Republican Party ticket is minimal.
    • Meanwhile, party-building activities often include voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives.

  • Regulating Executive Branch Lobbyists

    • Howard of the Louisiana State Lottery Company actively lobbied state legislators and the governor of Louisiana for the purpose of getting a license to sell lottery tickets.
    • The District of Columbia, seeking better voting rights for its citizens, has been lobbying Congress and the president for greater power—including possible statehood or voting representation in Congress.

  • The House and the Senate: Differences in Responsibilities and Representation

    • Congress regularly increased the size of the House to account for population growth until it fixed the number of voting House members at 435 in 1911.
    • Virgin Islands are represented by one non-voting delegate each.
    • Prior to 2011, they were also allowed to vote in committees and the Committee of the Whole when their votes would not be decisive.
    • Prior to that law, general ticket representation was used by some states.
    • The Voting Rights Act prohibits states from gerrymandering districts .

  • The National Convention

    • Polk emerged as the candidate after the leading candidates failed to secure the necessary two-thirds majority vote.
    • Broadly speaking, each U.S. state and territory party is apportioned a select number of voting representatives, individually known as delegates and collectively as the delegation.
    • Each party uses its own formula for determining the size of each delegation, factoring in such considerations as population, proportion of that state's Congressional representatives or state government officials who are members of the party, and the state's voting patterns in previous presidential elections.
    • An image of future President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden after they were officially nominated for the Democratic ticket at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

  • The Democratic Party

    • Most War Democrats rallied to Republican President Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans' National Union Party in the election of 1864, which featured Andrew Johnson on the Republican ticket even though he was a Democrat from the South.
    • After the end of Reconstruction in the 1870s, the South, voting Democratic, became known as the "Solid South. " Though Republicans won all but two presidential elections, the Democrats remained competitive.