A new report looks at whether split-ticket voting will be a prominent practice at the polls in November because of Republican Donald Trump's name on the ballot.
The Washington Post reports that voting for the president has mostly stayed along party lines in recent elections, with the majority of voting districts choosing candidates for the House and for the president in the same party.
Trump's polarizing rise in the Republican party, however, has many in the GOP questioning who they will vote for. More than two dozen high-profile Republicans, for example, have already switched sides and will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. And a recent letter from 50 top GOP national security officials showed they will also vote for Clinton.
Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, according to the Post, has been handing out literature at Clinton rallies in his state that show he has received support from unions that typically lean left.
With several tight Senate races that could potentially go to Democrats and ultimately hand them the majority in the chamber, many Republicans up for reelection are distancing themselves from Trump and are instead trying to drum up support any way they can — including from Democratic voters.
"The unfavorable levels at the top of the ticket set up a condition that might enhance more ticket splitting than we have seen in recent elections," Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion director Christopher Borick told the Post.
A recent study by the Pew Research Center showed that split-ticket voting districts have become a rarity, with just 6 percent of House districts splitting their votes in the 2012 election.
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