1 / 18

Candidates, Voting, & The Electorate

Candidates, Voting, & The Electorate. Who they are. 537 Elected federal officials Occupation Lawyers – 56 with JD, 49 practiced Business – Various backgrounds, 7 with MBA 19 Career Politicians, 2 MDs, 2 Military, and various others Race, Gender, Personal background

marika
Download Presentation

Candidates, Voting, & The Electorate

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. Candidates, Voting, & The Electorate

  2. Who they are • 537 Elected federal officials • Occupation • Lawyers – 56 with JD, 49 practiced • Business – Various backgrounds, 7 with MBA • 19 Career Politicians, 2 MDs, 2 Military, and various others • Race, Gender, Personal background • Predominantly white, male, and Christian and straight • Service vs. Self-interest

  3. Eligibility • President: natural born citizen, 35 yrs old, 14 yrs residence • Vice-President: Same as President, but must be from different state • Senator: Citizen for 9 years, 30 yrs old and resident of state • Representative: Citizen for 7 years, 25 yrs old and resident of state

  4. Campaigning • Candidate-Centered • Result of tech advance and cost • Need for large campaign organization • Raise money, get media coverage, shape image, conduct research and polling • Less dependence on Party • Increase in Independents

  5. Strategy • Political Consultants • Hired to create strategy and run campaign • Tend to be partisan, expensive • Three Pronged Strategy • Viability and Appeal • Polling • Focus Groups

  6. Willard Mitt Romney • Republican • Age: 64 • Education: BA from BYU; JD/MBA Harvard • Work experience: Founded Bain Capital, Chaired 2002 Winter Olympics • Government Experience: Governor of Massachusetts, 2003 – 2007 • Achievements: Romneycare, Education, 2002 Olympics, Bain,

  7. Barack Hussein Obama II • Democrat • Age: 50 • Education: BA Columbia, JD Harvard • Work Experience: Community Organizer, Civil Rights Lawyer, Law Professor • Government Experience: IL state senate 97-04, U.S. Senate 05-08, POTUS 09 – • Achievements:Obamacare, Recovery Act, Bin Laden

  8. Eliminating Barriers • Historically, women and African Americans have faced the greatest barriers to suffrage • 15th and 19th Amendments - Suffrage for African Americans and women • 24th Amendment – abolished Poll taxes • Voting Rights Act of 1965 – empowered the federal government to outlaw discriminatory practices • 26th Amendment – lowered voting age to 18

  9. Who Participates in Politics? • Forms of Participation • Inactive • Voting specialists • Campaigners • Communalists • Parochial participants • Activists • What Decides the Election? • Campaign issues • Position • Valence • Issues, Especially the Economy • Prospective voting • Retrospective voting • Party • The Campaign • Finding a Winning Coalition

  10. Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections

  11. Non-voters • 59.9 million people not registered in 1992 – most common reason; may be due to high mobility • No interest in politics, negative view of government, can’t make time, low voter efficacy

  12. Are turnout rates cause for concern? • How to get out the vote • Election day – Sunday?/National Holiday • Make requirement – illegal to not vote in Brazil • Appeal to direct participation: initiative, referendum, recall

  13. Conduct of Elections • Australian Ballot • Two common types: • Office Block (Mass) Ballot • Party Collumn (Ind) Ballot • Coattail effect • Mail Voting • Typically absentee ballots, some states offer to entire electorate • good way to increase turnout, but … • may lead to premature decisions, allow less secrecy, and encourage fraud

  14. Ballots Office Block Party-Column

  15. Issues and Problems • Fraud • provisional and absentee balloting • Voter ID Laws • Fraud reduction or voter suppression • Computerized Voting • Optical scan vs. touch screen

More Related