Straight ticket voting (also called straight party voting) allows voters to choose a party’s entire slate of candidates with just a single ballot mark. Voters make one mark or selection on the ballot in order to vote for every candidate of that party for each partisan office on the ballot.
Seven states allow straight-ticket voting (STV). With a few exceptions, the straight-ticket option is available in all general elections, and applies to all partisan offices on the ticket, including federal, state and local races.
The states with STV are: Alabama, Indiana,* Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
*In 2016, SB 61 abolished STV for at-large races only.
Recent Legislative or State Action
The number of states offering STV has been declining over time. Every year several bills are introduced to eliminate it, and occasionally bills are introduced to establish it.
States Abolishing Straight Ticket Voting
|
State
|
Year Abolished
|
Details
|
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Utah
|
2020
|
HB 70
|
|
Pennsylvania
|
2019
|
SB 421; effective in 2020.
|
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Iowa
|
2017
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HB 516
|
|
Texas
|
2017
|
HB 25; effective in 2020.
|
|
Michigan
|
2016; reestablished in 2019
|
SB 13. In July 2016, a U.S. District Court decision found the abolishment of STV disproportionately affected African-Americans and placed a preliminary injunction on enforcing the law for the 2016 election. In September 2018, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said plaintiffs were unlikely to win their appeal and ordered the ban to take effect. The plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court which denied a request to keep STV for the 2018 general election, so it was unavailabale in that election. However, voters passed Ballot Proposal 3 in November 2018 that amended the constitution allowing voters to cast a straight-ticket vote for all candidates of a particular political party when voting in a partisan general election, thus reestablishing STV in 2019.
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Indiana
|
2016
|
SB 61; abolished for at-large races only.
|
|
West Virginia
|
2015
|
SB 249
|
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Rhode Island
|
2014
|
HB 8072; effective 2015
|
|
North Carolina
|
2013
|
HB 589; effective 2014
|
|
Wisconsin
|
2011
|
Effective for November 2012 elections, and STV remains available for UOCAVA voters.
|
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New Hampshire
|
2007
|
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Missouri
|
2006
|
|
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New Mexico
|
2001
|
From 2002 to 2010, secretaries of state had administratively placed STV options on the ballot. In 2012, the secretary of state decided not to offer STV, noting that it had been repealed by the legislature. An attempt was made in the 2012 legislature to reinstate it, but it failed. In 2018 the secretary of state attempted to reinstate STV, but a petition to prevent its use was approved by the state supreme court.
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Illinois
|
1997
|
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South Dakota
|
1996
|
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Georgia
|
1994
|
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