CH. 6-4 VOTER BEHAVIOR
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
NONVOTERS
“Your vote is your voice. Use it.”
 This is the advice of an organization called Rock
the Vote. (www.rockthevote.org)
 This organization encourages young people aged
18-25 to participate in the election process
 The word IDIOT came to our language from the
Greek.
 In ancient Athens, idiots (idiotes) were those
citizens who did not vote or otherwise take part
in public life
 Tens of millions of Americans vote in all levels of
elections every year.
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Millions of Americans, for one reason or another,
don’t vote
 There are legitimate reasons for not voting.
 A troubling fact remains: most of the millions of
Americans who could—but do not –go to the polls
cannot claim any of those reasons.
 These people would have been called idiots by the
Greeks of 2000 years ago.
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THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEMS
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(table p. 165)—facts on non-voters in USA
2004—only 56.7% of voters participated in the
presidential election
Off-year (non-presidential) elections have an even
lower percentage.
Some people that do vote don’t vote for every race on
the ballot
Example: you vote for president but you don’t vote for
representative, etc.
“Nonvoting voters” are not limited to national
elections and they are more common in local elections.
“Ballot Fatigue”—the further down the ballot an
office is, the less likely people will vote for it
WHY PEOPLE DO NOT VOTE
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The time it takes to vote is not a significant part
of the answer
“Cannot-Voters”
 Although it is true these people do not vote, the
fact is that they cannot do so.
 2004—of the 95 million people that did not vote,
at least 10 million are resident aliens. They are
barred from voting in every state.
 5-6 million were so ill or otherwise physically
disabled that they simply could not vote
 2-3 million were traveling unexpectedly and
could not vote
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Other groups include some 500,000 persons in
mental health care or under some form of legal
restrain due to mental condition
 More than 2 million adults in jails and prisons
 As many as 100,000 who do not (cannot) vote
because of religious beliefs (those who believe
that acts such as voting amount to idolatry)
 An unknown but significant number could not
vote in 2004 because of 2 things:
 1) the purposeful administration of election laws
to keep them from voting
 2) various “informal” local pressures applied to
that same end.
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ACTUAL NONVOTERS
 2004--More than 80 million people who could
have voted did not
 A main reason was because they were not
convinced that is makes little real difference who
wins a particular election
 The group is divided into two subgroups
 #1) people that generally approve of the way
things are being run and no matter who wins,
things will stay the same
 #2) People that feel alienated. They don’t trust
political institutions and processes
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Another large group is composed of people who have
no sense of POLITICAL EFFICACY (lack any feeling
of influence or effectiveness in politics).
They do not believe they or their votes can have any
real impact
OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING TURNOUT
Cumbersome election procedures—inconvenient
registration procedures, long lines, long ballots, Bad
weather
“Time Zone Fall-out”—people not voting in the
western part of the country because the eastern polls
had closed and news media was projecting a winner
making western votes seem unimportant.
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Chief cause for people not to vote is, purely and
simply, a lack of interest
COMPARING VOTERS AND NON-VOTERS
People most likely to vote display the following
characteristics:
1)Higher level of income, education, and occupational
status
2) well integrated into their community
3) long-time residents
4) strong sense of party identification
5) Believe voting is an important act
6) They live where laws, customs, and competition
promote turnout
Profile of people less likely to vote:
 1) younger than 35 years old
 2) unmarried
 3) unskilled
 4) likely to live in the South and in rural locales
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Women are more likely to vote than men
 This has been apparent since the 1980s and was
reconfirmed in 2004
 People with a high sense of political efficacy are
likely to vote-no matter what their age, income,
education, race, etc.
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VOTERS AND VOTING BEHAVIOR
STUDYING VOTING BEHAVIOR
 1. The results of particular elections
 Ballots are secret in the USA
 We can study areas with high concentrations of a
particular group (Catholics, African-Americans,
etc.) to see how they voted in an election
 2. The field of survey research
 Survey a specific cross section of people
 Public opinion polls like Gallup are done this way
 3. Study of Political Socialization (the process by
which people gain their political attitudes)
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SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE VOTERS
 Sociological and psychological factors clearly
influence the way people vote.
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INCOME, OCCUPATION
 Income—lower—Democrats; higher—
Republicans
 Occupation—professional and business people—
Republican; manual workers, etc.--Democrats
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EDUCATION
College graduates vote Republicans in higher
percentages than high school graduates do
High School graduates vote for Republicans more
than people with only a grade school education
GENDER, AGE
GENDER GAP—measureable differences between the
partisan choices of men and women.
This first appeared in the 1980s
Women tend to favor Democrats be a margin of 5 to
10 percent
Men tend to favor the Republicans by a similar
margin
Men and women tend to vote differently on issues
such as abortion, health care, social welfare
matters, or military abroad situations
 Younger voters are more likely to be Democrats
 Older voters tend to be more Republican
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RELIGIOUS, ETHNIC BACKGROUND
 Historically Protestants have preferred the
Republicans
 Catholics and Jews have been much more likely
to be Democrats
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Moral issues—in particular same-sex marriage—
were unusually prominent in 2004.
 Church attendance has been a significant
indicator of party preference
 People that go to church at least once per week
voted for Mr. Bush in 2004
 For decades African-Americans has been solidly
for the Democrats
 There are more than 40 million AfricanAmericans and they are the second-largest
minority group (Latinos have more than 42
million)
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GEOGRAPHY
 Southern States (Confederacy) voted consistently
Democratic after the Civil War
 Republicans have been making good strides
toward getting votes in the South
 Democrats draw strength from big cities in the
North and East
 Republicans voters still dominate suburban areas
 Voters is smaller cities and rural areas are also
likely to be Republicans
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FAMILY AND OTHER GROUPS
 Members of a family vote in strikingly similar
ways
 9 out of 10 married couples share the same party
 As many as 2 out of 3 voters follow the political
party of their parents
 People who work together and socialize together
tend to share similar political ideas
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PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
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Sociological factors are no more important the
psychological factors
PARTY IDENTIFICATION
 A majority of Americans identify themselves with
one of the major parties early in life
 PARTY IDENTIFICATION—loyalty of people to
a particular political party
 Single most significant and lasting predictor of
how a person will vote
 STRAIGHT-TICKET VOTING—voting for all
candidates of a particular party
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Studies show that party identification has lost
some of its impact recently.
 One reason is the increase since 1960 in splitticket voting
 SPLIT-TICKET VOTING—voting for the
candidates of more than one party in an election
 Another indicator is the large number of people
who call themselves INDEPENDENTS (people
without party affiliation)
 The loose nature of party membership makes it
difficult to determine how many people are
independent
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The best guess is the independents are about ¼
to 1/3 of all voters today
 Until recently, the typical independent was less
concerned, less well informed, and less active in
politics than voters who aligned themselves with
a major party
 Today’s independents tend to be young and above
average in education, income, and job status.
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CANDIDATES AND ISSUES
 Party identification is a long-term factor
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Short-term factors tend to make people vote
against the political party they support.
 The impression a candidate makes on the voters
can have an impact on the election
 Issues have become increasingly important over
the last 40 years or so.
 Major issues of the time period are likely
responsible for the heightened concern about
issues in general
 Examples: the civil rights movement, the
Vietnam War, the feminist movement, the
Watergate Scandal, economic issues
 The End
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