Party Presidential Candidates Research Articles

William Lemke: Agrarian Radical and Union Party Presidential Candidate

Journal Article William Lemke: Agrarian Radical and Union Party Presidential Candidate Get access Edward C. Blackorby Edward C. Blackorby Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 49, Issue 1, June 1962, Pages 67–84, https://doi.org/10.2307/1889466 Published: 01 June 1962

The Presidential Short Ballot

The term “presidential short ballot” is applied to the ballot form in which the names of candidates for presidential electors are omitted and only the names of the candidates for president or for president and vice-president appear. The vote for the party presidential candidates on the ticket is a vote for the party electors whose names are filed with the secretary of state. The voter may feel that he is voting directly for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates; actually, he is voting for the electoral candidates of the party represented by his favored candidate for the presidency.This shortened ballot form is the result of three developments: (1) provision for a group vote for the electoral candidates of each party; (2) the addition at the head of the ticket of the names of the presidential candidates, whether the electoral candidates are voted on as individuals or as a group; and (3) introduction of the voting machine. Each of these developments started near the turn of the century.

Recent Proposals to Reform the Electoral College System

Since the 1932 election, developments have occurred which indicate a growing disposition to simplify the presidential election ballot and suggest that a revision of the mode of electing the chief executive may be eventually realized through constitutional amendment. The so-called “presidential short ballot” reform, which was first adopted in Nebraska in 1917, has moved forward rapidly in recent years. Sixteen states now have enacted statutes eliminating the names of presidential electors from the general election ballot, thus permitting their voters to choose electors by indicating a preference only for a party's presidential candidates.