The Politics of Ballot Design

"Introduction November 6, 2012 - Election Day - was a historic day for North Carolina Republicans. The party retained majority control of both chambers of the General Assembly, which had first been won in 2010, and the party's gubernatorial candidate, Pat McCrory, was victorious. With these victories the Republican Party began 2013 with unified control of the North Carolina government for the first time since the late 1800s. Their legislative agenda was immense. In 2013 alone, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted tax cuts, restricted access to Medicaid, and made major changes to education policy. The Republican majority also passed a controversial bill that called for major reforms to election practice in North Carolina. The Voter Information Verification Act, as it was known, was signed into law on August 12, 2013. It was ambitious in scope. It called for a strict voter identification requirement, ended "one stop" registration and voting, called for a sharp reduction in early voting, placed new limits on out of precinct voting, and eliminated preregistration for high school students. In addition, Section 31.2 of the bill, titled "Vote the person, not the party" eliminated the straightticket voting (STV) option. This was a box at the top of the ballot that allowed a voter to choose all candidates of the same party if he or she checked the corresponding box. A straight ticket option had appeared on North Carolina's ballots since the state first adopted the Australian or secret ballot in 1909"--