Straight-ticket voting

Straight-ticket voting or straight-party voting is the practice of voting for every candidate that a political party has on a general election ballot. In general, straight-ticket voting was a very common occurrence up until around the 1960s and 1970s. Since that time, straight-ticket voting has declined in the United States among the general voting population; however, strong partisans (that is strong party identifiers) have remained straight-ticket voters.

In the early days of the parties, it was nearly impossible not to vote on a straight-party line vote. Voters would receive a colored ballot with that party's nominees on it. A split-ticket vote would require two different colored ballots, which confused the voter. Often, the voter would choose a specific party, and vote for everyone from that party. Some states have had an option (sometimes known as a master lever) to select "vote straight-ticket Democrat" and "vote straight-ticket Republican" that voters can check instead of voting for each race; states that do so include Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah. West Virginia and Michigan abolished this practice in 2015 and 2016, respectively. (Michigan's repeal was blocked by a federal judge.)

The straight-ticket voting option differs slightly from state to state.

General-election ballots in Michigan have three sections:

Voters in Michigan had long been able to vote a straight ticket or a split ticket (voting for individual candidates in individual offices).

Straight-ticket voting only involved the partisan section of the ballot, meaning that if an individual wished to vote in a non-partisan race or for or against a proposal, they had to cast those votes individually. One area in which this issue received attention was in races for the Michigan Supreme Court. All parties on the ballot can nominate candidates for Justice of the Supreme Court at their party conventions (2–3 months before the election for primary-eligible parties, or before the August primary for alternative parties which nominate only at conventions or county caucuses). However, the races appear on the ballot in the nonpartisan section, meaning that a straight-ticket vote for either of these parties would not include a vote for that party's candidates for Supreme Court.

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