1 / 19

Voting and Elections

Voting and Elections. 28 October, 2010. Voter Turnout. Voter turnout is highest for presidential elections; in “midterm elections” only a third of the electorate vote U.S. turnout in comparative perspective How (and why) does voter turnout change over time? The role of age and education

maddy
Download Presentation

Voting and Elections

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Voting and Elections 28 October, 2010

  2. Voter Turnout • Voter turnout is highest for presidential elections; in “midterm elections” only a third of the electorate vote • U.S. turnout in comparative perspective • How (and why) does voter turnout change over time? • The role of age and education • Does low voter turnout matter?

  3. Turnout in Comparative Perspective

  4. Trends in Voter Turnout Source: Michael McDonald (2010) VAP=Voting age population (includes everyone over 18, non citizens, felons, etc; VEP=Voting eligible population

  5. Trends in Voter Turnout VAP=Voting age population (includes everyone over 18, non citizens, felons, etc; VEP=Voting eligible population

  6. Voting is the most common form of political participation • Many people also talk about politics and try to persuade others to vote • Very few participate in any other specific way.

  7. Political Participation in Comparative Perspective Source: Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), Module 2, 2004

  8. Why is voter turnout so low? • Voter attitudes • Lack of convenience • Difficulty of registration • Electoral system

  9. 0 Options for Electing the President • Congress chooses the president • State legislatures choose the president • President elected by popular vote • Electoral College

  10. 0 How it works • Each state was allocated a number of Electors equal to the number of U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of U.S. Representatives (which changes) • The manner of choosing the electors was left to the individual state legislators. By 1836 all states (except for South Carolina) choose electors by popular vote (plurality rules). • The candidate with a majority of electoral votes is elected president • In the event that no candidate wins a majority, the U.S. House of Representatives would choose from the top five contenders. Each state could cast only one vote. An absolute majority is required

  11. Unequal Representation Source: Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic is the American Constitution?

  12. The 2008 Presidential Election (270 needed to win)

  13. 0 The 2000 Presidential Election Bush 271; Gore 266 (270 needed to win)

  14. 0 The Florida Disaster • The “problem” with competitive elections • The Florida recount (link to Univ. of Chicago study) • The punch card voting system • Design of the palm beach ballot

  15. 0 The Butterfly Ballot

  16. 0 Evidence of problems in Palm Beach

  17. The 2008 Congressional Elections • The vast majority of congressional elections are not very competitive (most incumbents are re-elected; 94% in 2008) • Results for House of Representatives • Senate elections are more competitive but reelection rates are still very high (ie. in 2008, 83% reelection rate) • Results for Senate

More Related