Split-ticket voting

Split-ticket voting occurs when a voter casts their ballot for candidates representing different political parties among the various public offices at the national, state, and local levels. Straight-ticket voting, the opposite of split-ticketing, is when a voter chooses candidates of one party for all offices that appear on the ballot.

The US general election determines the outcomes of contests between the Republican Party, Democratic Party, and third-party candidates for public offices at all levels, and occurs on the first Tuesday in November. Additionally, states and local districts sometimes hold special elections when a certain office becomes unexpectedly vacant, usually through the officeholder’s resignation or death. Split-ticket voting may occur during general, state, or local elections.

Overview

The United States’ vast socioeconomic diversity is reflected in its political landscape, with certain local areas, states, and regions being reputed as Republican-leaning or Democratic-leaning, conservative or liberal. However, the exact nature of "conservative" or "liberal" politics varies from one area to another, as the specific issues of importance to voters in one locale may differ considerably from voters in another part of a state or section of the country. Thus, voters may feel that certain candidates for a national or state office, for example, more closely reflect their own political values and preferences—even if that candidate identifies with a different party. This perception often leads to split-ticket voting in general elections. Registered independents (those unaffiliated with a party on their registration) and self-identified moderates are more likely to engage in split-ticket voting. Third-party candidacies also tend to increase split-ticket voting.

Voters generally do not split the ticket when voting for national offices like president and US senator: 7 percent of voters in the 2012 election split the ticket when voting for president and US senator. The rates of split-ticket voting fluctuate tremendously from state to state, from 1 percent among Wyoming voters to 23 percent among West Virginians in 2012. One prominent example of consistent split-ticket voting is Pennsylvania. Despite voting for the Democratic candidate in the six presidential elections from 1992 to 2012, Pennsylvanians chose the Republican candidate in five of the seven Senate elections in that period, two of them during presidential election years (2000 and 2004). Similarly, in 2012, the state elected thirteen Republican congressional representatives while favoring a Democrat for president. Montana, North Dakota, and Rhode Island are other states well known for their federal ticket splitting.

Split-ticket voting appears to be declining among Americans, however. In the 2012 general election, only about 20 percent of states with Senate races voted for different parties’ candidates for president and senator, down from 52 percent in 1988. Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, the Pew Research Center found that only 4 percent of voters planned to vote for a presidential candidate that did not match the party of the Senate candidate they anticipated voting for on the same ballot. An analysis of voter data from the Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies found that 1.9 percent of Republican voters in battleground states split their votes in the 2020 election. In these same states, 1 percent of Democrats split their vote, supporting lower-office Democrats and Republican Donald Trump for President. In the 2024 election, three states went for the Presidential candidate from one party and a governor from the other party. New Hampshire and Vermont voted for the Democratic candidate for the President, while both states chose to elect a Republican governor. North Carolina, on the other hand, voted for the Republican candidate for President while electing a Democrat to the governorship. The decline of split-ticket voting reflects a growing national trend toward political polarization between liberals and conservatives, characterized by voters’ unfailing loyalty to their respective parties and legislators’ reluctance to compromise in Congress.

Bibliography

Balz, Dan. Collision 2012: The Future of Election Politics in a Divided America. Penguin, 2014.

Dalton, Russell J. "Switchers, Splitters, and Late Deciders." The Apartisan American. Sage, 2013. 129–50.

"Election Results, 2024: Split-Ticket States in the 2024 Presidential and Gubernatorial Elections." Ballotpedia, 3 Dec. 2024, ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2024:_Split-ticket_states_in_the_2024_presidential_and_gubernatorial_elections. Accessed 17 Nov. 2025. 

Edwards, Mickey. The Parties versus the People. Yale UP, 2013.

Harrison, Rick. "Newly Released Ballot Data Finds Ticket Splitting Among Republican, Democratic Voters." Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies, 23 Oct. 2024, isps.yale.edu/news/blog/2024/12/newly-released-ballot-data-finds-ticket-splitting-among-republican-democratic. Accessed 17 Nov. 2025. 

"Large Shares of Voters Plan to Vote a Straight Party Ticket for President, Senate and House." Pew Research Center, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/10/21/large-shares-of-voters-plan-to-vote-a-straight-party-ticket-for-president-senate-and-house/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2025.

Ostermeier, Eric. "Which States Have the Most Split-Ticket Voting in Presidential-U.S. Senate Election Cycles?" Smart Politics, University of Minnesota, 5 Apr. 2011, smartpolitics.lib.umn.edu/2011/04/05/which-states-have-the-most-spl/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2025.

Steinhauer, Jennifer. "Wary of Trump Effect, Republicans Hope for Split Tickets." New York Times, 28 Apr. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2016/04/29/us/politics/republicans-ticket-splitting.html. Accessed 17 Nov. 2025.

Vavreck, Lynn. "The Power of Political Ignorance." The Upshot, New York Times, 23 May 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/upshot/the-power-of-political-ignorance.html. Accessed 17 Nov. 2025.