Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dabney Notes 7 12
Dabney Notes 7 12
Dabney Notes 7 12
Jordan Conway
Australian ballot
Secret ballot
Initiated split-ticketing (you could vote for different parties for different jobs)
Who votes?
Educated people
Those who’ve developed political efficacy over a period of time
Know how the system works and how to get their voices heard
White citizens election turnout
White collars (professionals) (regular voting)
Unionized people
Non-southerners (regional)
Interest groups
When do people vote?
Times of crisis
Presidential elections vs. midterm elections Points of higher voter
Coattail- far more important than voting for local representatives/ turnout rate
congressional representative
Landmark president (obama)
Incumbency advantage- hardly any competition
Battlefield states, when winner is unforeseen
Very competitive election
Models of Vote Choice- voting behavior is defined by several behavioral models
Michigan Model
Party I.D. (there’s psychological attachment to party)
Platform a series of issues so voters will vote according to the party
Informational shortcut for voters
Image (namely the image of the candidate, but sometimes the image of the political
party)
Candidate personality and appearance
The prejudice of electoral politics: pretty or charismatic people win!
Issues (most important, but least influential factor in vote)
Polition issues and valence issue
Position issues: war in Iraq, abortion, school prayer, school vouchers, gun
control, stem-cell research, GMOs
Valence issues: job-creation, disease research (AIDS, Alzheimers), education
(no child left behind), public safety, environment
Columbia model- sociological explanation of voting behavior
Network of people who affect your vote
Group identification
Primary reference group(s) (family, peers, co-workers). Relying on these people
Cross-pressure/ compound-pressure (convergence of multi-directional pressure from
reference groups)
Information networks (getting voting direction from opinion leaders)
Rational choice model (“economic” explanation of
Prioritizing who we vote for
Utility maximizing (attention to policy interests are maximized by voting for “Candidate
X”)
Ordered preferences
Nader =Issues ABC, Obama = Issues CDE, McCain= FGH
Though Obama and Nader are similar, not all issues are aligned
McCain is completely different from other choices, but might win because
Nader is taking votes from Obama
Why do people abstain from voting?
Ignorance
Political indifference
Lack of political efficacy (one might be interested in the issues, but don’t feel their opinion
matters)
Confliction about candidate/ party
NO difference in choice
Uninformed/ incompetent
Voting fatigue
Voter registration
No time/ too busy
Work
Forgot
Inconvience
Illness
Decline in political parties
3rd party choices
Since 1950, average voting turnout rate is 52-55% for presidential elections
Midterm elections: 33%- 35% voting turnout
Is it bad that not many people vote?
Conservative viewpoint
Effective operation of democracy includes apathy and complacency
People not interested in politics, it’s ok if turnout is low, don’t need 100% turnout
Elitist viewpoint- bringing in “sleepwalkers” to the election
Radical viewpoint