Chapter 13 – Voting and Elections
I.
II.
III.
The Purposes Served by Elections
a. Importance of symbolism of elections:
b. Electorate:
c. Mandate:
d. Retrospective judgment:
e. Prospective judgment:
f. Three requirements for voters to engage in prospective voting:
i. .
ii. .
iii. .
g. How voters retrospectively and prospectively judged recent presidential administrations
in reaching their voting decisions:
i. 1880
ii. 1984
iii. 1988
iv. 1992
v. 1996
vi. 2000
vii. 2004
Kinds of Elections
a. Primary Elections
i. Primary elections:
ii. Closed primary:
iii. Open primary:
iv. Crossover voting:
v. Raiding:
vi. Blanket primary:
vii. Runoff primary:
viii. Nonpartisan primary:
b. General Elections
i. General election:
ii. Congressional incumbent reelections rates:
c. Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
i. Initiative:
ii. Referendum:
iii. Recall:
iv. 2003 California gubernatorial recall and election:
Presidential Elections
i. Winner-take-all primary:
ii. Proportional representation primary:
a.
b.
c.
d.
iii. Proportional representation with bonus delegates primary; beauty contest with
separate delegate selection; delegate selection with no beauty contest:
iv. Caucus:
Primaries versus Caucuses
I.
Which states use primaries and which use caucuses to select presidential
delegates:
II.
Characteristics of caucuses:
III.
Characteristics of primaries:
IV.
Earliest primary:
V.
Regional primary:
VI.
“Super Tuesday”:
VII.
Front-loading:
VIII.
Invisible primary:
The Party Conventions
i.
Uncommitted delegates:
ii.
Three ways national party conventions are different today:
i. .
ii. .
iii. .
iii.
Delegate selection:
iv.
Unit rule:
v.
Superdelegates:
vi.
National candidates and issues:
vii.
News media and national conventions:
viii.
Decreased network coverage:
ix.
Gavel-to-gavel coverage:
x.
Who are the delegates?:
xi.
2004 delegates to national conventions:
xii.
Contrast between Democrats and Republicans:
The Electoral College: How Presidents are Elected
i.
Electoral College:
ii.
Electors:
iii.
Number of electors:
iv.
Three essential reasons why the Framers constructed the Electoral College:
i. .
ii. .
iii. .
v.
Why Electoral College worked well when elections were nonpartisan:
The Electoral College Today:
i.
2000 presidential election:
ii.
Implications of reapportionment after 2000 census:
iii.
Recent reapportionment favored which party?:
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
IV.
2004 presidential election:
Abolition:
Congressional district plan:
Unintended consequences of congressional district plan:
i. .
ii. .
iii. .
viii.
Keep the college, abolish the electors:
e. Patterns of Presidential Elections
i.
Party realignments:
ii.
Critical elections:
iii.
Last confirmed major realignment:
iv.
Realignments accomplished in two main ways:
v.
Secular realignment:
vi.
Effect of decline of party affiliation:
vii.
Dealigned period:
Congressional Elections
a. The Incumbency Advantage
i. Incumbency:
ii. Congressional reelection rates:
iii. “scare off” effect:
iv. 1994 congressional elections:
b. Redistricting, Scandals, and Coattails
i. U.S. Census:
ii. Redistricting:
iii. Growth of size of House:
iv. 2003 Texas partisan House redistricting:
v. Gerrymandering:
vi. Supreme Court rulings on redistricting:
1. .
2. .
3. .
vii. How redistricting along party lines affects the make-up of Congress:
viii. Scandals:
ix. Coattails:
c. Midterm Congressional Elections
i. Midterm election:
ii. Senate elections and off-year patterns:
d. The 2002 Midterm Elections
i. First time since 1934 a first-term president did what?
ii. Party control of Congress:
iii. 2004 election:
V.
VI.
Voting Behavior
a. Patterns in Voter Turnout
i. Turnout:
ii. How America votes(Table 13.3)
iii. Education:
iv. Income:
v. Age:
vi. Face and ethnicity:
vii. Voting Rights Act of 1965:
viii. Hispanic vote:
ix. Interest in politics:
b. Why is Voter Turnout so Low?
i. Percentage of U.S. voter participation:
ii. Contributing factors for low voter participation rates:
1. Too busy:
2. Difficulty of registration:
3. Difficulty of absentee voting:
4. Number of elections:
5. Voter attitudes:
6. Weak political parties:
c. How can the United States Improve Voter Turnout?
i. Easier registration and absentee voting:
ii. Motor voter law:
iii. Make Election Day a holiday:
iv. Strengthen parties:
v. Other suggestions:
d. Does Low Voter Turnout Matter?
i. Arguments why low voter turnout does not matter:
ii. Arguments why low voter turnout matters:
e. Patterns in Vote Choice
i. Race and ethnicity:
ii. Gender:
iii. Income:
iv. Ideology:
v. Issues and campaign specific developments;
f. Ticket-Splitting
i. Ticket-splitting
ii. Effect of party affiliation intensity on ticket-splitting
Reforming the Electoral Process
a. McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002:
b. Internet voting:
c. Mail-in ballots
d. No national standard for vote recount:
e. Voting technology: