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Ever since I was about 13, I have felt a strong allegiance to the Democratic Party. I am just using that as an example (if you feel the opposite way, that’s fine with me but if you do this we would never vote the same way), and I want to know a fact. This is not an opinion question in the sense that I am asking for your opinion, but how common is it for people to vote the same way always in a US election? I would appreciate to know if one party’s members do it more than the other.

By this I mean voting same party 100% of the time in all races on the ballot, aka party line. Mayor, president, etc.

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  • Can you clarify if your asking more about voting for the same party in every election (a strong part identity, strong partisanship) or voting for the same part in all races on one ballot (party-line voting)?
    – divibisan
    Mar 28, 2020 at 22:11
  • I mean voting same party 100% of the time in all races on the ballot, aka party line. Mayor, president you name it.
    – Number File
    Mar 28, 2020 at 22:16
  • @NumberFile There is an interesting effect where it appears (US) people place a certain amount of value on a divided government and will often not vote a straight party line on the entire ballot. They may vote Democrat, say, for major offices, but then decide that all Democrats in control of everything would be bad and will vote for a non-Democrat further down the ballot to "balance things out". I've done it myself; the very first time I voted, in fact, I decided, for no premeditated reasons, to vote for the other party a few times to keep a balance.
    – zibadawa timmy
    Mar 29, 2020 at 20:14
  • This is thought to at least partly explain why we so often see a change in party control of the House (and possibly Senate) in mid-term elections. Some people will feel that Party X had their turn the last few years, and now it's time for Party Y to have a go. Though I'm having trouble locating any good statistics on that matter (as Joe's answer says, the nature of ballots in the US makes it difficult to track voting behaviors; we rely almost entirely on exit polls).
    – zibadawa timmy
    Mar 29, 2020 at 20:17

1 Answer 1

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It's difficult to find data to cover every single line on the ballot. However, in what I hope will be a reasonable proxy, I can point to a CNN exit poll from the 2016 election where voters were asked how they voted in US House elections.

It showed that 90% of people who voted for a Democrat in their House district voted Clinton for President, while 87% of those who voted for a Republican in their House district voted for Trump for President.

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    I think that that is a pretty good source and 9/10 for one time makes sense to me.
    – Number File
    Mar 29, 2020 at 21:54

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