POLITICAL PARTIES & ELECTIONS, FALL 2010

VOTER TURNOUT, CONGRESSIONAL VOTERS

Hershey 8, B&F 1, Jacobson 5

Monday, November 1

1. Education is the key factor influencing a citizen’s likelihood to vote. How then can we explain the fact that voter turnout declined from the 1960s through the early 2000s despite the overall increase in formal education among Americans during that same time period?

2. How does the registration process impede voting? What could be done to address the ways in which registration constitutes a barrier to voting?

3. The box on p. 154 in Hershey lists reasons nonvoters gave for not voting in the 2008 elections. Assume this is a fairly typical set of responses given by nonvoters. What if anything can or should we do about these reasons, and who would “we” be (the government, political parties, candidates, individual citizens)?

4. Why has voter turnout been higher in 2004 and 2008, including the turnout of young voters? Why does voter turnout among the youngest age groups continue to lag voter turnout overall? What myths exist (according to B&F ch. 1) about youth voting?

5. Chris will cover the key ideas from Jacobson chapter 5. Main things to consider: what did we know already about how voters decided whom to vote for, and how different then are congressional voters compared to voters in presidential elections? Key variables to consider: party identification, information, contacting, campaign spending, candidate evaluations (especially evaluations of incumbents), issue positions.

A key quote:

“[S]uccessful challengers do two things: They make voters aware of their own virtues and they make voters aware of the incumbent’s shortcomings” (Jacobson 145-6).

X. Ask your own question here.