Ch. 10 Elections and Voting Behavior

StudyBlue printing of Ch. 10 Elections and Voting Behavior html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td { margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; outline: 0; font-size: 100%; background: transparent; } body { line-height: 1; } blockquote, q { quotes: none; } blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after { content: ''; content: none; } /* remember to define focus styles! */ :focus { outline: 0; } /* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */ ins { text-decoration: none; } del { text-decoration: line-through; } /* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */ table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; } /* end RESET */ .header { min-width:800px; } .logo { padding:6px 20px 2px 20px; margin:0; font-size:25px; font-weight:bold; color:#808285; position:relative; border-bottom: 1px solid #c5c5c5; } .logo-blue { color:#70adc4; } .logo-desc { font-weight:normal; font-size:19px; color:#cccccc; margin-top:50px; position:absolute; display: none; } .back-button { position:absolute; top:20px; right:20px; font-size:13px; line-height:25px; color:rgb(0,175,225); font-weight:normal; } .back-button a { color:rgb(0,175,225); } .instructions { padding:0; margin:0; width:100%; position:relative; color:rgb(100,100,100); } .step-holder { border-left:1px solid #ededed; margin-left:20px; } .steps { padding:15px 0; float:left; width:24%; border-right:1px solid #ededed; text-align:center; } .steps-01 { } .steps-02 { } .steps-03 { } .steps-04 { } .label { padding:5px 10px; } .print-button { } .print-button a { background-color:rgb(0,175,225); color:white; line-height: 19px; padding:9px 8px 5px 30px; font-size:14px; text-decoration:none; background-image: url(images/printer.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 7px 50%; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; } .print-button a:hover { background-color:black; } .theNote .content { width: 8.0in !important; margin: 5px auto; padding:20px; background-color:white; } .theNote .header { border-bottom: 1px dashed #C8C8C8; font-size: 17px; padding: 0 0 10px; line-height: 19px; color: #00ADE1; min-width:500px; } .theNote .body { font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 10px 0; } .theNote{ padding:6px 0; clear:both; background-color: rgb(200,200,200); } .theNote h3{ color: rgb(100,100,100); } .theNote h1, .theNote h3{ background-color:white; padding:2px 20px; width:8.0in !important; margin: 0 auto; font-size: 15px; } .theNote h1{ padding-top: 10px; font-size: 15px; } .theNote h1:first-child{ font-size: 20px; } .theNote h3 { font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; } #options { border: 3px double #ccc; padding: 5px 12px; margin: 10px 50px 10px 20px; float: left; } #info { border-top: 1px solid #ccc; padding-top: 5px; font-style: italic; } li { margin: 5px 10px 5px 25px; } ul li { list-style: disc; } ol li { list-style: decimal; } img { border: 0; } table { clear: both; width: 100%; border: 1px solid #c5c5c5; border-width: 1px 0; margin: 0; page-break-after: always; } table#page { page-break-after: auto; } td { text-align: center; font-size: 12px; border-bottom: 1px dashed #c5c5c5; height: 1.75in; width: 50%; padding-left: 15px; } .leftside { border-right: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 0 15px 0 0; } .bottom td { border-bottom: none; } .clearfix { clear:both; line-height:1px; height:1px; } img { max-width:80%; max-height:150px; margin:20px; } @media print {.header { display: none; } .content .header{ display:inherit; } table { border: 1px dashed #bbb; border-width: 1px 0; } .theNote{ background-color:white; } } I. Institution of Elections The US provides for universal adult suffrage, all citizens over the age of 18 have the right to vote. Americans vote in secret and choose among candidates for particular office using a form of the ballot called the "Australian Ballot." The US selects almost all elected offices through single-member districts that have equal populations; one person, one vote. For most offices, the candidate who wins the most votes among all those competing for a given seat wins the election. A. Who votes? 1. At the start of the 19th century, US considered very democratic because all adult white males could vote. But blacks were not allowed to the vote before the Civil War (changed by 15th amendment.) Women were not allowed to vote until 1920 in most states. 2. Voting is voluntary in the US. The level of voter participation in the latter half of the 20th century was very low (50%). This might be do to the effort involved in registering to vote. B. The Ballot 1. The Secret Ballot is used to avoid corruption of voter intimidation. It is a strong assertion of the individual, reflecting the person's own mind. 2. The Australian Ballot, which is used today, is an electoral format that presents the names of all candidates for any given office on the same ballot, organized by political party. Ends the need to vote for just a party, but for individuals. C. Electoral Districts 1. Single-member district: an electorate that is allowed to elect only one representative from each district, with equal populations. 2. Presidential elections. Each state is allocated votes in the electoral college equal to the number of US Senators (2) plus the number of House members. 3. History: The Constitution originally designed the House to represent the people, with the number of seats elected by each state allocated on the basis of population. It specified that the state legislatures would choose the US senators, which each state choosing two senators to staggered 6-year terms. It left the election of individual House members or electors to the electoral college. This task fell to the states, which handled it differently. The 1967 Apportionment Act officially forbade the use of anything but single-member districts. Beginning in 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that all federal and state legislative districts have equal populations: one person, one vote. Apportionment Revolution House of Representatives apportioned by population- separate districts to assign representatives. -1948 Apportionment Law: district have to have continuous lines -1929 Reapportionment Act: keep House at 435 members -Method of Equal Proportions: math to decide districts ---Clemons v Dept. of Commerce (2010) Clemons argues that the House should be increased to the smallest district is the size of the smalled state so there would be 1 representatives for every 563,626 (population of Wyoming). This means the size of the house would always be changing --- Colgrove v Green (1946)- Tuskegee changed town borders to exclude black population to retain an all-white city council. Court held this as unconstitutional because it had the clear intent to disenfranchise the black population. ---Reynolds v Sims (1964) applied one person-one vote to states Senate: Originally, senators were selected by the state legislatures, not by popular elections. By the early years of the 20th century, the legislatures of as many as 29 states had provided for popular election of senators by referendums. [ 16 ] Popular election to the Senate was standardized nationally in 1913 by the ratification of the 17th Amendment. Gerrymandering: the apportionment of voters in districts in auch a way as to give unfair advantages to one political party, by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts. D. What it takes to win 1. Plurality Rule: the candidate who receives the most botes in the relevant district or constituency wins the elections, even if that candidate doesn't receive a majority of votes. The electoral college is a plurality system in which the candidate who receives the most votes wins all of the delegates. 2. Some states employ a Majority Rule which requires a candidate to receive an outright majority in an election in order to be declared a winner. 3. The main alternative to the plurality rule is Proportional Representation, in which competing parties win legislative seats in proportion to their share of the popular vote. (If a person wins 34% of the popular vote, he will get 34% of the seats in the legislature.) 4. Duverger's Law: Law of politics stating that plurality-rule electoral systems will tend to have 2 political parties. This is formed from two components. First, by creating several extreme parties, votes are taken from major parties, thereby detracting their likelihood to win. Also, voters do not want their votes to go to waste so they will bote for alternatives instead of extremes. E. Direct Democracy: 1. 24 states provide for referendum voting. The Referendum process allows citizens to vote directly on proposed laws. It is an institution of direct democracy: it allows voters to govern directly without intervention by government officials. 2. 24 states also permit various forms of initiative, which provides citizens with a way forward in the face of legislative inaction. This is done by placing a policy proposal on the ballot to be approved or rejected by the electorate. To have a place on the ballot, a petition must be accompanied by a minimum number of voters determined byt he states. 3. Legal provisions for recall elections exist in 18 states. The recall is an electoral devise introduced to allow boters to remove governors from office before the expirations of their term. F. How Voters Decide 1. Parisan Loyalty: Americans identify with one party and vote in accordance with that identity (based on issues, ideology, upbringing, etc) 2. Issue voting: governments make policies and laws on a variety of issues that affect the public. Voters who disagree with those policies and laws on principle or who think those policies have failed will vote against those who made the decisions. Voters who support the policies or like the outcomes that government has produced will support the incumbent legislatures or parties. Voters' choice of issues usually involves a mix of their judgements about the past behavior of competing parties and candidates and their hopes and fears about candidate's future behavior. Choices that focus on future behavior = prospective voting, those based on past performance = retrospective voting. 3. Spatial Voting: Spatial issues: an issue for which a range of possible options or policies can be ordered, say, from liberal to conservative.