The vast majority of ballots cast in the United States before the 1960s were straight-ticket ballots.Hershey, Marjorie Randon. Party Politics in America 12th ed. 2007: Longman Classics in Political Science. Pages 110-111 However, straight-ticket voting experienced a steady decline through the 2000s as a result of many political factors. The drift of the Democratic Party away from its roots in the Reconstruction era's Redeemers led to the collapse of straight-ticket voting in the Solid South, as southern voters began to vote for Dixiecrats (Conservative southern Democrats) at the local level while backing Republicans at the national level. At the same time, the Democratic Party moved to the center under Bill Clinton and the New Democrats. With fewer distinctions between the two parties, voters were more likely to focus on the specifics of different candidates.
