Chapter 6: Voters and
Voter Behavior
Voter Turnout in 2004
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/
/
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Whites - 67%
Blacks
- 60%
Hispanics - 47%
Asians
- 44%
/
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/
65 +
45 +
18-24
- 79%
- 70%
- 58%
Women- 65%
Men - 62%
Voting Miscellanea
Write ins
- Can win, but not likely
- 20,767 for write-in POTUS candidates (0.02%)
- 10 states don’t allow write-ins
Absentee Voting
- 20% voted before election day
- 21 staes require an excuse to vote absentee by mail
Ohio and early voting
Oregon and vote by mail
More Miscellanea
Party of the President loses seats in the Midterm
Dow, not Paula Jones
Who do undecided voters go to at the last minute?
Time Zones
Arizona Proposition 200
- $1 Million Voter Reward
HAVA
Help America Vote Act 2002
- Required “provisional ballots” where
eligibility would be determined later
- States determine how to verify
differently
- Joe Wurzelbacher or Joe
Wurzlebacher
Felonious Behavior
Felony Disenfranchisement
- 48 states bar felons (including
those on probation & parole) and
10 states bar ex-felons
- 4.7 million people barred from
voting (2% of citizens)
- Disproportionate numbers of
minorities and poor (1.8 million
of 4.7 million are black)
- Could this turn an election?
Florida has highest number of
felons in nation and some of
toughest laws.
31% of FLA’s black
Males are barred
From voting
Sentencing Disparity?
Since 1988, possession of
five grams of crack cocainean amount equal to five
packets of sugar substitutelanded a person in jail for 5
years
But people caught with
cocaine powder would have to
possess 100 x that amount, or
500 grams, to get the same
5-year stint behind bars.
More Miscellanea
Rally around the flag
Coat-tails
Favorite Son
Ebay the vote in 2000
- started @ $5 and pulled at
$10,000
I. The Right to Vote
A.
History of Voting Rights
1. Suffrage/franchise- right to vote
2. Electorate- potential voting population
3. 2 trends: gradual elimination of voter
restrictions; Fed. Gov. assuming power
4. Five stages of the extension of voting
rights:
a. 1789b. 1870
c. 1920
Suffrage and Civil Rights
d. 1960s:
1. Voting Rights Act of 1965
2. 23rd Amendment:
3. 24th Amendment-
Civil Rights Act of 1964
`
e. 26th Amendment
Power to Set Voting Qualifications
1. Power is reserved to States with
exception of 4 restrictions:
II. Voter Qualifications
A.
Universal Requirements
1. Citizenship
2. Residence
3. Age
B. Other qualifications
1. Registration
a. Motor Voter Law, 1995:
2. Persons denied the vote
a. Mental institutions
b. convicted of serious crimes
c. dishonorable discharge
III. Voter Behavior
A.
B.
Nonvoters (origin of the word “idiot”)
1. Millions who do not participate
Size of the problem
1. Nonvoters more common in ?????
2. Millions of nonvoters among those who
vote- How is that possible?
a. Ballot fatigue:
C. Why People Do Not Vote
1. “Cannot Voters”2. Actual nonvoters:
a. government taken over by politicians
b. lack political efficacy- what is political
efficacy?
3. Factors affecting turnout:
a.
b.
c. biggest reason-
4. Comparing Voters and Nonvoters
a. voters- high income, education, occupation,
strong party ID, believe voting is important
b. nonvoters- under 35, single, unskilled,
rural south
c. women more likely than men
d. degree of party competition
e. high sense of political efficacy
more likely to vote regardless of other
factors
1. Combination of factors; not one
single
D. Voters and Voting Behavior
1. Study voting behavior- political
socialization:
2. Factors that influence voters:
a. personal characteristics: age, race,
income, occupation, education, religion
E.
b. voters group affiliations: family,
co-workers, friends, etc.
Sociological Factors
1. We already discussed in Chapter 5
F.
Psychological Factors- voters
perception of politics
1. Party ID- best predictor
a. straight ticket voting
b. has lost some significance:
1. Increase in split-ticket voting
2. Increase in # of independents