In United States politics, balancing the ticket is a practice where a political candidate chooses a running mate, usually from the same party, with the goal of bringing more widespread appeal to the campaign. The term is most prominently used to describe the selection of the U.S. vice presidential nominee.

There are several means by which the ticket may be balanced. Someone who is from a different region than the candidate may be chosen as a running mate to provide geographic balance to the ticket. If the candidate is associated with a specific faction of the party, a running mate from a competing faction may be chosen so as to unify the party. Similarly, running mates may be chosen to provide ideological, age, or demographic balance.

In U.S. presidential elections, balancing the ticket was traditionally associated with the smoke-filled room cliché, but this changed in 1970 with reforms in the primary system resulting from the McGovern-Fraser Commission. According to Douglas Kriner of Boston University, the McGovern-Fraser reforms brought an end to traditional ticket balancing practices. Now, presidential candidates are less concerned with regional and ideological balance, says Kriner, and are more inclined to pick compatible running mates with extensive government experience.

Nelson Polsby and Aaron Wildavsky, two notable political scientists of the late 20th century, described ticket balancing as a way to maximize the number of voters that the candidates can appeal to through a broad range of characteristics:

If it is impossible to find one person who combines within his or her heritage, personality, and experience all the virtues allegedly cherished by American voters, the parties console themselves by attempting to confect out of two running mates a composite image of forward-looking-conservative, rural-urban, energetic-wise leadership that evokes hometown, ethnic, and party loyalties among a maximum number of voters. That is, at least, the theory behind the balanced ticket.

In the earliest days of American presidential elections, the president and vice president were technically elected on the same Electoral College ballot. The person receiving the most electoral votes becoming the president and the person with the second most votes becoming the vice president. When this system proved unwieldy, the Twelfth Amendment was passed in 1804 providing that the Electoral College use different ballots for president and vice president.

Most elections before the American Civil War featured a Northerner paired with a Southerner or vice versa. After the Civil War, geographical balance between North and South became less critical but would remain a factor well into the 20th century, especially in the Democratic Party. In the 20th century, an increased interest in the Electoral College led many presidential candidates to choose vice presidential candidates from populous states with large numbers of electoral votes. It was hoped that voters in this state could be swayed by having a favorite son on the ticket.

Later in the 20th century, ideological balance became more prominent with a very liberal or conservative presidential candidate often paired with a more moderate vice presidential candidate or vice versa to bring more widespread appeal. Other factors came to prominence in the late 20th century such as gender, religion, age and other issues. The trend has continued in recent times, although it is less of a predictable science. In 1992, Bill Clinton of Arkansas, seen as a more moderate Democrat, chose the more liberal Al Gore of neighboring Tennessee as his running mate. However, they were both white Protestant southerners from the baby boomer generation, and most political analysts saw them as similar in political ideology. This brought little in the way of ticket balancing.