Straight-Ticket Voting (Straight-Party Voting)

Oklahoma allows straight-party voting, also known as straight-ticket voting, in general elections. Straight-party voting enables a voter to select one political party’s complete slate of candidates for every office by making a single mark on his or her ballot. Oklahoma is one of only 6 states still allowing straight-party voting as of 2022, along with Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and South Carolina, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Fifteen states have abolished straight-party voting since 1994; in some instances, repeal efforts have led to extensive legal battles.

The trend in Oklahoma is for an increasing number of voters to cast straight-party ballots, with a growing majority of straight-party voters supporting the Republican Party. In 2020, over 710,000 Oklahomans selected the straight-party option, out of a total of some 1,560,000 votes cast, or 46 percent of all voters, up from 36 percent in 2016. Of straight-party voters in 2020, 71 percent voted for the Republican ticket, 28 percent voted straight-party Democrats, and 1 percent Libertarian, according to the Oklahoma Election Board. In the 2018 mid-term election, 40 percent of ballots were straight party votes, with Republicans receiving about 308,000 straight party votes (66 percent) to the Democrats’ 162,000 (34 percent), the Norman Transcript reported.