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Split-ticket voting orticket splitting is when a voter in an election votes for candidates from differentpolitical parties when multipleoffices are being decided by a singleelection, as opposed tostraight-ticket voting, where a voter chooses candidates from the same political party for every office up for election. Split-ticket voting can occur in certain mixed-member systems which allow for it, such asmixed-member proportional andparallel voting systems.
Consequently, inclosed list electoral systems, which are used most notably inArgentina,Israel,South Africa, andSpain, voters are structurally unable to participate in split-ticket voting.[1] These systems require individuals to vote for a party list, rather than for specific candidates in varying offices.
The behavior is often a result of candidate and voter dynamics; when individuals are evaluating elections based on each candidate's personal appeal, perceived performance, or connection to local issues, they are more likely to bypasspartisan electoral norms.[2] It has also been attributed to voters making a conscious choice to balance power ingovernmental branches between political parties.[3]
InAustralia, federal elections in recent times have usually involved aHouse of Representatives election and ahalf-Senate election occurring on the same day.[4] The states, with the exception ofQueensland andTasmania,[5] also hold elections for both houses of parliament simultaneously. An example of split-ticket voting in Australia is a voter who gives their first preference to theLiberal Party on the House of Representatives ballot paper and to theOne Nation party in the Senate.
In the2013 election, the Senate vote for both the Liberal and Labor parties was considerably lower than their lower house vote, demonstrating that a large number of people voted for a major party in the House of Representatives and a minor party or micro-party in the Senate.[6] There are many reasons why a voter may do this, including the fact that many parties only stand candidates for the Senate (leaving their supporters unable to vote for them on their lower house ballot), the much lower quota required for election to the Senate compared to the House of Representatives (14.3% versus 50%), and a desire to check the power of the government by preventing it from controlling the Senate.
From 1978 to 2008, when theAustralian Democrats held representation in the Senate, the Democrats benefited greatly from split-ticket voting, as their Senate vote was always much higher than their House of Representatives vote.[7] The party built its campaigns around "keeping the bastards honest", a reference to holding thebalance of power in the Senate so as to prevent the chamber from becoming either a rubber stamp for the government or a tool of obstruction for the opposition.
Ghanaian federal presidential and parliamentaryelections are held every four years, and local elections are held before or after a 6-month window. Presidents are elected using thetwo-round system, while MPs are elected with thefirst-past-the-post system.[8]
In Ghana, split-ticket voting is called skirt-and-blouse voting,[9] and refers to voting for a President and member of parliament of different parties.[10] It can be seen as a form of protest against particular presidential or legislative candidates, or as a vote of no confidence.[11] The phenomenon of skirt and blouse voting has grown in recent years, with 11 constituencies voting skirt and blouse in 1996 compared to 26 constituencies voting skirt and blouse in 2012.[12][13]
During the2024 election, 12% ofNew Patriotic Party members said that they intended to vote skirt-and-blouse.[14]National Democratic Congress candidateJohn Dramani Mahama advocated against skirt-and-blouse voting, stating that a strong majority in both the presidency and parliament would allow the government to be more effective.[15]
During the2024 Indonesian general election, despite winning the most votes in the legislative election in traditionally PDIP-supporting provinces such as Central Java and Bali, the PDIP presidential ticket, Ganjar-Mahfud, failed to secure victories in those provinces. A similar phenomenon occurred in East Java, where PKB won the most legislative votes, but its presidential ticket, Anies-Muhaimin, also failed to win the province. The eventual winner, Prabowo-Gibran, won 36 out of 38 provinces, securing 58% of the national vote.[16]
Since the reintroduction of amixed electoral system in 2017, ticket splitting had been banned in national elections[17] while some regions allow it. In the2024 Sardinian regional election,centre-right candidatePaolo Truzzu received 45% losing the election while the parties who supported him got 48.4%. Some later accused ofLega of ticket splitting.[18]
In thePhilippines, elections for multiple positions are held on the same day. In elections where the presidency is at stake, the vice presidency is elected separately. Voters have split their ticket to provide checks and balances to the top two positions.[19] In the operation of the 1987 constitution until2022, the president and vice president came from different parties in three out of four elections. Having the elected president and vice president coming from different parties is seen as undesirable.[20]
The president may also endorse a senatorial slate, and candidates for House representatives and local officials; all of these are elected separately and voters may split their ticket down-ballot.
Split ticket presidential/vice presidential results:
In theUnited Kingdom theAdditional Member System is used for thedevolved assemblies ofScotland andWales, as well as theLondon Assembly[21][22][23] and is considered to increase the likelihood to split-ticket. As each voter casts two votes: one vote for a candidate standing in their constituency (with orwithout an affiliated party), and one vote for aparty list standing in a wider region. In the constituency vote a single representative is elected using the traditionalFirst-Past-The-Post system. The regional vote is used to elect multiple representatives from party lists to stand in regional seats, taking into account how many seats were gained by that party in the constituency vote, using a system ofproportional representation: the number of seats a party receives will roughly reflect its percentage of the vote. Between the 1997 and 2003 elections in London, Scotland, and Wales between 17 and 28 percent of voters split their tickets.[24]
In theUnited States, multiple elections for many different offices are often held on the same day. This may be true ofprimary elections and may also include the placing of candidates for federal, state, and local offices on the same ballot. One of many possible examples of split-ticket voting in the United States is a voter who seeks to elect theDemocratic Party's candidate for theSenate, theRepublican Party's candidate forHouse of Representatives, theGreen Party's candidate for County Supervisor, and theLibertarian Party's candidate forCoroner.
One example is the2004 Montana gubernatorial election, whereDemocratic gubernatorial candidateBrian Schweitzer was elected governor 50.4% to 46.0%, while incumbentRepublican PresidentGeorge W. Bush defeated DemocratJohn F. Kerry 59% to 39%. This suggests that a large number of the electorate voted for a split-ticket, selecting a Republican presidential candidate and a Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate. One later example is the2016 West Virginia gubernatorial election, where Democrat (now Republican)Jim Justice won by eight points while Republican presidential candidateDonald Trump won in the state with 68% of the vote. Jim Justice later switched as a Republican in 2017. Four years later, in the2020 United States Senate election in Maine, incumbentSusan Collins won by a 8.6% margin against Democratic challengerSara Gideon, despiteJoe Biden defeatingDonald Trump in Maine by a 9.1% margin.
Split-ticket voting in America was an electoral rarity before the 1950s; in 1948, for example, just six states split tickets between President and Senator.[25]Political scientists generally locate the American emergence of ticket splitting in the 1950s and 1960s. As party loyalty began to decline and campaigns began centering around candidates, driven by television and emphasis on candidate image, voters became increasingly willing to evaluate leaders independently of party affiliation.[26] By the late-1960s, split-ticket voting had become common in United States elections. The 1968 presidential election, specifically, featured a strongElectoral College victory for Republican nominee,Richard Nixon, while the Democratic Party maintained control of theHouse of Representatives by a significant 51-seat margin. Four years later, the nation reelected Nixon in one of the largest victories in American history, while simultaneously electing a Democratic majority in the House by a 50-seat margin.
In 1976, the nation saw a reversal from the increase of split-ticket voting, as Democrats maintained sweeping majorities in both houses of Congress, andJimmy Carter became the first Democrat to win the presidency since 1964. As a Southern Democrat and Governor of Georgia, Carter benefited from significant regional support in the American South and considerable disillusionment with the Republican Party followingthe Watergate scandal. Ultimately, the aligned federal government of the Carter years was short-lived: split-ticket voting began its peak just four years later with the election ofRonald Reagan, and a continued Democratic House majority in 1980. Over the course of the 1980s, the Republican Party won three consecutive presidential elections by significant margins, while the nation elected Democrats to lead the House for all 10 years, and the U.S. Senate from 1987-1989.
In the 1990s, split-ticket voting remained prominent in American elections, even as Bill Clinton won the presidency in both 1992 and 1996. The1994 United States elections in particular resulted in the first Republican House of Representatives majority in forty years, and put Republicans back in the majority in the Senate for the first time since 1986. This electoral result has often been referred to as the "Republican Revolution," and was responsible for the rise of figures likeNewt Gingrich.[27]
In the 21st century, split-ticket voting has seen a drastic decline. The2004 United States elections, specifically, saw a sharp decline in split-tickets among President and Senator with just 7 total. 2016 and 2020 saw just one split-ticket victory: RepublicanSusan Collins defeatedSara Gideon by an eight-point margin whileJoe Biden won the state ofMaine. However,Donald Trump won the 2nd district. In the2020 presidential election, only 16 "crossover districts" — congressional districts that elected a presidential candidate and a House candidate of a different party — were recorded, in comparison to 35 in2016 and 83 in2008. The 2020 numbers represent only four percent of the overall congressional districts in the U.S., and a record low. In addition, the2020 United States Senate elections left six states with a split representation between Democrats and Republicans, in comparison to 21 states with a split representation after1992. This was attributed to the increasing polarization and nationalization of politics in the U.S., in which members of both political parties have regarded one another with antipathy.[28][29]
Later, in the2022 United States elections, there was a resurgence in split-ticket voting in a number of states. In some cases, concurrent gubernatorial and Senate races went to candidates of different parties. For example, inGeorgia, RepublicanBrian Kemp defeated DemocratStacey Abrams inthe gubernatorial election by seven points, drastically outperforming RepublicanHerschel Walker inthe concurrent Senate race, which Walker lost to DemocratRaphael Warnock after a runoff election in December. In other cases, there was a performance gap between gubernatorial and Senate candidates in the same state. For example, inOhio, GovernorMike DeWine wonthe gubernatorial election by about 26 percentage points, whileJD Vance wonthe concurrent Senate race by less than seven percentage points. The results of the 2022 elections were attributed by experts to the quality of candidates.[30][31][32] The number of "crossover districts" also slightly increased from 16 to 23.[33]
In the2024 United States elections split-ticket voting saw a slight increase electorally. As Trump, the Republican nominee, won reelection to the presidency after his defeat four years prior, four states split in their results in United States Senate races, with Democrats being elected despite Trump winning the state. In North Carolina, the result was split between the presidential and gubernatorial race, as DemocratJosh Stein defeated Republican Lieutenant GovernorMark Robinson in a landslide, while Trump carried the state by nearly 4%. A slew of scandals heavily damaged the Robinson campaign as the election neared; this is often credited as the main reason for Stein's victory.[34] In New Hampshire and Vermont, RepublicansChris Sununu andPhil Scott won reelection as governor, while Democratic presidential nomineeKamala Harris won both states.
Although less common, split-ticket voting can potentially be used as a form oftactical voting. One possible example of this is a voter who prefers candidate A but does not believe that candidate A can win the election, so the voter votes for candidate B (who may be of a different political party from candidate A) because candidate B is better than other more competitive candidates C, D, etc.
Split-ticket voting may also occur in elections where multiple voting systems are employed. Another possible motivation is if the voter does not have significant preference to either party and tactically looks to elect different party members in symbiotic roles to limit the impact of each. One possible example of this is a voter who, in aparallel voting system selects a candidate from a minority party for seats allocated by aproportional representation election system and selects a candidate from a larger party for a seat decided by afirst past the post system. Inmixed-member proportional systems large-scale strategic split ticket voting and the use of decoy lists may be used to subvert the compensatory effect of the system.
Split ticket voting is different from split ticket preferencing, often referred to as a "split ticket". In the latter, the candidate for political office (or the party they are standing for) will issue 'How to vote' cards or pamphlets which provide two different suggested alternatives on how voters who wish to vote for them should direct their second, third and subsequent preferences.[39][40][41]
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