Ticket Balance - Geographic Balance

Geographic Balance

Geographic balance has played an important part of politics since the beginning. Before the civil war, a northern candidate was almost always paired with a southern running mate or vice-versa. Since the civil war, this level of geographical balancing is less critical, but still plays a big role. In modern times, voters in the south, midwest, and Rocky mountain region of America are less inclined to support northeasterners and Californians without some sort of geographic balance and vice versa.

For example, in 1960, Richard Nixon of California chose Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. of Massachusetts as his running mate to blunt Kennedy's strength in New England. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts chose Texan Lyndon Johnson to appeal to southern voters.

The United States Constitution itself demands some balance, as Electoral College voters cannot vote for two people from their state. For example, if Dick Cheney had not moved back to his home state of Wyoming before the 2000 election the Electoral College voters from Texas would not have been able to vote for him as vice-president and thus the Senate would have picked one.