VOTING AND ELECTIONS

Chapter 13

O’Connor and Sabato

American Government:

Continuity and Change

VOTING AND ELECTIONS

In this chapter we will cover…

•     The Purposes Served by Elections

•     Different Kinds of Elections

•     Presidential Elections

•     Congressional Elections

•     Voting Behavior

•     Reforming The Electoral Process

•The Purposes Served by Elections

•      Most change in the United States comes about on the basis of elections.

•      Elections generally allow us to avoid:

–    riots

–    general strikes

–    coups d'etats

•      Elections serve

–    to legitimate governments through the mandates of the electorate

–    to fill public offices and organize governments

–    to allow people with different views and policy agendas to come to power

–    to ensure that the government remains accountable to the people.

•Different Kinds of Elections

•     Primary Elections

•     General Elections

•     Initiative, Referendum, and Recall

–  Initiatives allow citizens to propose legislation and submit it to popular vote.

–  A referendum allows the legislature to submit proposed legislation for popular approval.

–  Recall elections allow citizens to remove someone from office.

•Presidential Elections

•    Choosing the nation’s chief executive is a long, exhilarating, and exhausting process that often begins even before the previous election ends.

•    The presidential election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

 

Electoral College

•     The Electoral College was a compromise created by the Framers to ensure that the president was chosen intelligently and with the input of each of the states.

•     The number of electors is determined by the federal representation for each state.

•     For example, California has 52 members of the House of Representatives and 2 Senators – 54 electoral votes.

Electoral College

•     There are a total of 538 electoral votes (535 members of Congress and 3 for the District of Columbia)

•     A majority of 270 wins the presidency.

•     Just as George W. Bush did in 2000, a candidate can win a majority of electoral votes with a minority of popular votes and still be elected to the office.

 

Presidential Election 2000

Al Gore (D)

•      50,996,116 votes

•      48%

•      21 States Won

•      266 Electoral Votes

George Bush (R)

•      50,456,169 votes

•      48%

•      30 States Won

•      271 Electoral Votes

Patterns of
Presidential Elections

•    Party Realignments are rare occurrences in which existing party affiliations change dramatically.

•    Secular Realignment is the gradual shifting of party coalitions.

 

•Congressional Elections

In Congressional elections:

•     candidates tend to be less visible.

•     most candidates are or were state legislators.

•     name recognition is often the most important battle of the campaign.

•     candidates receive little media coverage.

Incumbency

Incumbency advantage – the electoral edge afforded to those already in office…achieved through:

•    Higher visibility

•    Experience

•    Organization

•    Fund-raising ability

•Voting Behavior

Voter Participation

•    About 40% of the eligible adult population votes regularly.

•    About 25% are occasional voters.

•    About 35% rarely or never vote.

Who Votes?

•      Income – people with higher incomes have a higher tendency to vote.

•      Age – older people tend to vote more often than younger people (less than half of eligible 18-24 year olds are registered to vote).

•      Gender – Since 1980, women have a higher tendency to vote for Democrats than Republicans.

•      Race – in general, whites tend to vote more regularly than African-Americans (this may be due to income and education rather than race).

Does Low Voter
Turnout Matter?

•    Is low voter turnout a problem in a democracy?

•    Do we want the uninformed or poor and uneducated voting? Might they make bad decisions?

•                Reforming the Electoral Process

Ψ Some possibilities:

•      Abolition of the electoral college

•      The establishment of a permanent congressional district scheme

•      The elimination of the elector system

•      Nomination process by lottery… New Hampshire not always first

•      Restructuring campaign finance laws