2. Voting and Participation
Political participation takes many forms in American
politics.
At the core of participation is the act of voting.
Open and free elections held on a regular basis are the
hallmark characteristic of a democratic government.
Voting provides the critical linkage between citizen’s
preferences and governmental authority.
3.
4. Voting and Participation
The United States is not a direct democracy in which
every citizen is invited to deliberate the issues and
vote on public policy.
Rather, the United States system is a representative
democracy, sometimes referred to as an indirect
democracy or republican form of government.
Citizens choose the individuals who are then
responsible for making and enforcing public policy.
The people do not rule directly, but exercise their power
vicariously by choosing individuals they prefer as their
leaders.
5. Voting and Participation
The core principle underlying a representative
democracy is majoritarianism, or majority rule.
When choices are presented to the voters, the choice
that is supported by the most voters is the choice that
prevails.
After the majority makes its choice, the consent of the
governed is satisfied – the will of the people is
accomplished when the majority decides.
Voting is the mechanism that ensures the majority
will rule.
Times change, and so do people’s opinions and
preferences.
6. Voting and Participation
Therefore, a representative democracy requires that
elections occur on a regular basis so that the
government’s authority reflects changing majority
views.
Regular and periodic elections allow the majority of
voters to continue to exercise ultimate control over the
direction of public policy.
7. The Legal Structure for Voting
The franchise, or suffrage, is the right to vote.
Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution assigns the
system of voting to the states.
Voting registration, voter eligibility, methods of casting
ballots, and the tallying of official results are all
functions reserved for states.
The Constitution prescribes eligibility requirements
for federal officeholders and lays out the system for
selection of the president and vice-president;
HOWEVER, it says nothing about who can vote in
elections.
8. The Legal Structure for Voting
Constitutional amendments have been ratified and
federal laws have been passed preventing states from
discriminating in granting suffrage rights.
Still, technically, there exists no absolute constitutional
right to vote in the first place.
9.
10. Toward Universal Suffrage
The states have exercised significant authority in
defining who is eligible to vote.
For many years, states regularly denied minorities,
women, young adults, Native Americans, and the poor
the right to vote for officeholders at the local, state, and
national levels of government.
In addition, a number of states prescribed property
ownership requirements, poll taxes, and literacy tests
that prevented many people fro being eligible to vote.
11.
12. Toward Universal Suffrage
But the goal of universal suffrage – or the right of all
citizens to vote – has been an elusive one throughout
American history.
Restrictions on voting rights have systemically denied
the right of particular groups of people to participate in
choosing their leaders.
Yet, universal suffrage is a process, not the result of
one or two events.
Two centuries of government under the Constitution
have been marled by steady progress toward the goal
of extending the franchise to all Americans.
13. Toward Universal Suffrage
In the first federal elections in 1788, voting rights
were limited to white men who owned property.
The Civil War presented the first major challenge to
the disenfranchisement of a particular class of people
– blacks.
Prior to the Civil War, black slaves did not have the right
to vote; actually, they had no rights at all.
The infamous Dred Scott decision ruled that slaves were
property, had no rights under the law, and were not or
would ever become legal citizens of the United States.
14. Toward Universal Suffrage
The so-called “Reconstruction Amendments” were
met with some resistance; however, they solved the
disenfranchisement crisis.
The Thirteenth Amendment abolished the institution of
slavery.
The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to
former black slaves.
The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed that a citizen’s
right to vote would not be abridged based on race.
The Fifteenth Amendment was the first formal action
of the federal government to enforce voting rights
over the states.
15. Toward Universal Suffrage
The Fifteenth Amendment did not deter former
Confederate states from finding new ways to deny
blacks their newly won voting rights after
Reconstruction ended in 1877.
Threats, beatings, destruction of property, and other
intimidation tactics effectively kept blacks from coming
to the polls on Election Day.
Additionally, the states sought legal means to prevent
blacks from voting.
A poll tax required individuals to pay a fee before being
allowed to vote.
A literacy test was required to prove that they could
read and write.
16. Toward Universal Suffrage
The civil rights movement of the 1960s addressed the
problems associated with the disenfranchisement of
blacks.
Two important products of this movement were the
Twenty-Fourth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act
of 1965.
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) outlawed poll
taxes by making unconstitutional any law that required
payment for voting eligibility.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 denied states the right to
use literacy tests as a requirement for voting.
17. Toward Universal Suffrage
The past century also witnessed the enfranchisement of
women.
The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 made
the abridgement of voting based on gender
unconstitutional.
Three other groups have successfully won the right to
vote through federal legislation and constitutional
amendment.
A 1924 federal law made it illegal for states to deny Native
Americans the franchise.
In 1961, the Twenty-Third Amendment gave residents in
the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential
elections.
In 1971, in the midst of the Vietnam War, Congress passed
the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting
age to eighteen in all local, state, and federal elections.
18. Toward Universal Suffrage
Today in the United States, the only adults legally
disenfranchised are convicted felons in prison, on
probation, and on parole.
19. Voter Registration Laws
Most states today have voter registration systems in
which individuals must qualify to become eligible to
vote.
The responsibility for qualifying lies with the
individual.
States do not compile and maintain a list of individuals
who are eligible to vote.
Rather, individuals must take it upon themselves to
demonstrate their qualifications and file the appropriate
paperwork to become eligible.
20. Voter Registration Laws
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, often
called the Motor Voter law, mandates that when an
individual applies for or renews a state driver’s
license, the state must also provide the individual with
voter registration materials.
Research suggests that although this law has increased
voter registration, it has not increased actual turnout.
21. Exercising the Franchise
A number of factors explain why people decide to
cast a ballot on Election Day.
1. Interest in politics is the only factor that leads people to
vote.
2. The perception that their vote can have an impact on
the outcome of the election.
3. Social group pressure can be a motivating factor in
deciding to vote.
22. Who Turns Out to Vote?
An individual’s interest in politics and attentiveness to
news about politics and campaigns, sense of civic
duty, and sense of political efficacy all lead to higher
rates of voter turnout.
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who
show up to vote on Election Day.
A person’s gender, age, and level of education are all
related to the decision to vote.
The better educated and wealthier Americans are
substantially more likely to vote.
23.
24. Who Turns Out to Vote?
STATISTICS DATA
Total eligible Americans 206,072,000
Total Americans registered 146,311,000
American voters in the 2012
presidential election
131,144,000 (64%)
State with the highest voter
turnout (Minnesota)
75%
State with the lowest voter turnout
(Utah)
53.1%
25. Who Turns Out to Vote?
STATISTICS DATA
Male 69.1%
Female 72.8%
White 73.5%
Black 69.7%
Asian 55.3%
Hispanic 59.4%
STATISTICS DATA
AGE 18-24 58.5%
AGE 25-34 66.4%
AGE 35-44 69.9%
AGE 45-54 73.5%
AGE 55-64 76.6%
AGE 65-74 78.1%
AGE 75+ 76.6%
26. Who Turns Out to Vote?
STATISTICS DATA
Less than
High School
50.5%
High School
Graduate
64.1%
Some
College
75.3%
Bachelor’s
Degree
81.2%
Advanced
Degree
85.8%
STATISTICS DATA
Less than
$20,000
63.7%
$20,000 to
$29,999
67.1%
$30,000 to
$39,999
71.1%
$40,000 to
$49,999
72.6%
$50,000 to
$74,999
78.2%
$75,000 to
$99,999
81.9%
$100,000 + 79.6%
27. How Do They Vote?
Methods of Casting a Ballot
Once a person decides to vote, there are several
different ways a ballot can be cast.
In the United States, five different methods of voting
are generally used:
1. hand-counted paper ballots
2. mechanical lever machines
3. computer punch cards
4. optical scan cards
5. electronic voting systems
28. How Do They Vote?
Methods of Casting a Ballot
Each of the fifty states has the authority to administer
elections, and most states delegate most of the work
to counties and other localities.
In all, more than 10,000 jurisdictions at the county level
or below are responsible for carrying out the important
task of collecting and tabulating votes.
Paper ballots were the only method of voting used in
the United States during the first 100 years of our
nation’s history.
29. How Do They Vote?
Methods of Casting a Ballot
Originally, the paper ballots were produced by the
political parties with only their candidates listed.
On Election Day, the voter would take the ballot from which
political party he/she preferred and placed it in the ballot box.
In 1856, many jurisdictions began using a form known
as the “Australian secret ballot,” which listed all of the
candidates and the voters choose which candidate
they preferred.
30.
31. How Do They Vote?
Methods of Casting a Ballot
The first real technological advance in voting
technologies came with the introduction of the lever
voting machine in 1892.
A voter enters a voting booth and chooses a
candidate by pulling a lever.
The votes are recorded by advances in a counting
mechanism that does not require a paper ballot and do
not require manual counting of ballots.
After the polls close, a poll worker simply reads the
numbers recorded by the counters.
32.
33. How Do They Vote?
Methods of Casting a Ballot
Punch cards, which debuted in 1964, were the first
computerized method of vote counting.
Voters record their choices by punching holes in
appropriate locations on a card, which are computer
readable.
The piece of card that is punched is called the “chad.”
Unlike lever machines, the punch cards may be saved
as a record of the vote – manual recounts of the
actual votes are possible.
Much of the 2000 controversy regarding the Florida
vote in the presidential election dealt with the
“hanging” chads (is it a legal vote?).
34.
35. How Do They Vote?
Methods of Casting a Ballot
Optical scan ballots are a method of voting based on
the same technology as that used to grade
standardized tests such as the SAT.
Given a paper ballot and pen, voters mark their
selections by filling in boxes or ovals on the card.
The ballots are then scanned by a computer for vote
tabulation.
As with punch cards and paper ballots, a permanent
record of the vote is kept and is available for manual
counting.
36.
37. How Do They Vote?
Methods of Casting a Ballot
Electronic voting is similar to lever machine voting in
that it involves no paper record of the individual
votes; yet, the technology is much more
sophisticated.
Voters select candidates from a ballot that is
displayed on a computer screen.
The votes are stored in the computer.
38.
39.
40.
41. Why Don’t People Vote?
Despite the numerous factors that motivate people to
vote, many in fact do not vote.
Voter turnout is a measure of how engaged Americans
are in voting in any given election contest.
High turnout is considered a healthy sign for a
democratic system.
It implies that people are engaged in political issues,
spend the time to contribute to the system, and take
responsibility for selecting leaders.
Lower turnout is often viewed as a by-product of
alienation, mistrust, and lack of confidence in the
political system.
42. Why Don’t People Vote?
In 1966, political scientist Angus Campbell and his
colleagues identified five factors that distinguish
between “high-stimulus” elections and “low-stimulus”
elections.
The factors that characterize a high-stimulus election
are:
1. greater levels of media coverage
2. higher significance of the office
3. campaigns in which voters assign high importance to
an issue
4. more attractive candidates
5. perceptions of a close race
43. Voting Compared with Other
Democracies
Many observers of elections note that voter turnout
rates are lower in the United States than they are in
other democracies.
From 1992 to 2000, the average turnout rate for
presidential elections was fifty-two percent and forty-
five percent in all federal elections.
During this same period of time, turnout in other
nations was much higher.
Several explanations have been offered to account for
the lower turnout rates in the United States compared
with other democracies.
44.
45.
46. 1. Italy
2. Iceland
3. Greece
4. Belgium
5. Sweden
6. Australia
7. Denmark
8. Chile
9. Argentina
10. Turkey
11. Portugal
12. Spain
13. Austria
14. Brazil
15. Norway
16. Netherlands
17. Germany
18. United Kingdom
19. Finland
20. Ireland
21. Thailand
22. Ecuador
23. France
24. Canada
25. Luxembourg
26. Mexico
27. Peru
28. Bolivia
29. Venezuela
30. Dominican
Republic
31. United States
32. Switzerland
33. Columbia
34. Guatemala
47. Voting Compared with Other
Democracies
There are a large number of elections in America,
making the opportunity to participate less of a
novelty.
Turnout rates are low simply because there are so many
elections held in the United States.
Tuesdays are workdays.
Traditionally, most elections are held on Tuesdays,
which is inconvenient and difficult for the working
people.
In other nations, elections are held on weekends or over
a period of a number of days, which makes it easier for
people to find the time to cast a vote.
48. Voting Compared with Other
Democracies
Voting usually requires advanced registration.
In most states, the individual is required to register to
vote prior to Election Day.
In other nations, voter registration is automatic once the
individual is of legal age.
Over the past fifty years, perceptions that
participation can make a difference in what the
government does and that government is responsive
to the people have declined.
As people come to feel that they are less able to
influence the system and that the system is less
responsive to them, they become less likely to vote.
49. Voting Compared with Other
Democracies
Extensions of the franchise lead to short-term
declines in turnout.
Ironically, events that have expanded the franchise have
been followed by lower turnout rates.
Voting in the United States is not compulsory.
In some democracies, suffrage is seen as a right so
citizens have the opportunity to exercise this right or
not.
By contrast, some democracies view suffrage as a
citizen’s responsibility and have compulsory voting laws
requiring citizens to vote.
Punishments for not voting include large fines, possible
imprisonment, and disenfranchisement.
50. Voting Compared with Other
Democracies
There has been a decline in “social capital.”
Social capital is the extent to which individuals are
socially integrated into their community.
Over the past half-century, Americans have become less
socially connected to political parties, labor unions, and
civic groups.
51. Is Nonvoting a Problem?
Although turnout has declined, the American political
culture encourages people to vote.
Efforts to encourage people to vote is based on the
assumption that voting is importance and that
nonvoting is problematic.
First, low voter turnout rates are a symptom of a weak
democracy because low turnout means that the
majority does not rule.
Second, low voter turnout awards more power to the
more affluent, higher socioeconomic groups in our
society because the less educated and lower income
families do not vote.
52. Making a Vote Choice
After an individual registers to vote and makes the
decision to vote, the final phase of the process is to
make a choice among the candidates who are
running for office.
Research has identified a number of different factors
that act as cues to individual voters in helping them
make a vote decision.
Collectively, these factors are referred to as
“determinants of vote choice.”
53. Making a Vote Choice
Candidate Familiarity
The most basic voting cue is simple name recognition
and familiarity with a candidate.
Most voters pay little attention to politics and political
campaigns.
If a voter recognizes one candidate’s name and no
others, they are much more likely to vote for the name
they recognize.
Likewise, the more familiar voters are with a candidate,
the more likely they are to vote for that candidate.
54. Making a Vote Choice
Party Identification
Political parties play many important roles in the
American political system.
Often, voters form a psychological attachment to a
party that helps them organize their political
information and offers an important cue to vote
choice.
Party identification tends to be a long-term
predisposition – once it forms, it usually remains with an
individual over the course of his/her life.
55. Making a Vote Choice
Issue Voting
For voters, a candidate’s position on a particular issue
or set of issues is a voting cue.
Voting on the basis of issues is more likely to occur in
certain types of elections.
First, when a particular issue captures the attention of
many people, voter’s are more likely to use a
candidate’s position on that issue to form a vote
decision.
Second, issue voting occurs more often when an issue is
of particular personal concern to a voter.
Third, issue voting is much more likely to occur when
the candidates hold clearly distinct positions on issues.
56. Making a Vote Choice
Retrospective Voting
A voter’s past experience with a candidate or a
political party also can be an important determinant
of vote choice.
Retrospective voting suggests that evaluations of an
incumbent’s past performance in office provides
important cues for voters in deciding whether to vote
for that incumbent or the nominee.
Voters who believe that an incumbent has done a fine
job will vote for the incumbent once again.
Voters who believe that an incumbent has done a
terrible job will vote for the nominee.
57. Making a Vote Choice
Candidate Image Voting
The image, personal traits, and other characteristics of
the particular candidates in a campaign can also
influence the way people vote.
Perceptions of candidate image include such
characteristics as honesty, trustworthiness, leadership
ability, concern for voters, integrity, intelligence, and
sense of humor.
