Parties and Elections in the
States
•Electoral politics in the
states and localities
•A. Administration of
elections
• 1. All elections in the United States
are administered by state and
local governments, not by the national government—thus, great variation
• 2. In most states the Republican and
Democratic parties have a
“preferred position”
• 3. States vary in the difficulty of
ballot access for minor parties
• 4. States choose one of two kinds of
ballots
• a. Party column or Indiana ballot,
which encourages party-line
voting
• b. Office block or Massachusetts
ballot, which encourages
split-ticket voting