" "From the 1830s through the 1890s, political parties dominated American political decision making to a greater extent than ever before or since" (p. 5). In the "Gilded Age," when Americans heard the word "politics," they would understand it as "party politics" and all political involvement would come through party participation. Parties had similar political objectives and organizations: "they nominated candidates, tried to elect them to office, and attempted to make their successful candidates write their policy objectives into law"(p.5). During much of the century, the process of choosing party's candidates for office began amongst the party's voters. In most states candidates were to be nominated each year rather than serving in terms like today. "At the time, most states elected a half-dozen or more statewide officers, usually to short terms"(p.9). Just as today, political leaders took special interests and views into consideration to be addressed. On the other hand, voter participation was much different then from what it is today. Voter participation at the time was at its peak in American history at seventy percent of voters who where eligible voted, and most of the voters in the "Gilded Age" would vote straight ticket depending on what ideas and beliefs their political party backed. Party organizers "tried to make ticket splitting difficult; for example, they had all the vacant space on the ticket filled with decorative curlicues and elaborate ornamention, so there was no space in which to write a name"(p.13). Today, voter turnout is very low and straight ticket is not as popular as it was in the late nineteenth century. Technology made campaigning of the "Gilded Age" much different from what it has become today. Today, television, radio, and world wide communications has made campaigning almost irrelevant, but on the contrary, campaigning in the late nineteenth century was "vied in mobilizing the largest number of supporters produced of all-time"(p.