Voters and Voter Behavior

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Chapter 6

• Voters and Voter Behavior

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Section 1 The Right to VoteHistory of Voting
Rights

• Framers left voter qualifications up to the
  states.
• When the Constitution went into effect, only
  white, male property owners could vote.
• Today the American electorate is nearly 220
  million people.
• Electorate potential voting population
• This is the result of in voting laws due to over
  200 years of often bitter and violent struggle.
• The history of voting rights in America has had
  two long-term trends
• Elimination of voting restrictions
• Power of the states over voting rights has
  shifted to the National government.

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Extending Suffrage 5 Stages

• The growth of the American electorate has come in
  5 stages over the last 200 yrs.
• Early 1800s religious qualifications and
  property ownership disappeared.
• Post- Civil War race qualifications for
  citizenship were eliminated
• However, African Americans were pretty much kept
  from voting until the 1960s.
• 1920s sex qualifications are eliminated by the
  19th amendment
• 1960s laws preventing African Americans from
  voting in the South were eliminated by the Voting
  Rights Act of 1965.
• 1970s voting age reduced to 18 by the 26th
  amendment

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Power to set Voting Qualifications

• Constitution gives states the power to set voting
  qualifications.
• There are 4 restrictions on how the states use
  this power
• No state can deny someone the right to vote on
  the basis of race.
• No state can deny someone the right to vote on
  the basis of sex.
• No state can require payment of a tax as a
  condition for voting.
• No state can deny someone who is at least 18
  years of age the to vote.

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Section 2Voter Qualifications

• Every state requires 3 qualifications to vote
• Citizenship
• Residence
• Age
• The states have some wiggle room with citizenship
  and residence, but not with age.
• Nothing in the Constitution says that aliens can
  not vote.
• It is up to the states.
• At one time, nearly ¼ of the states allowed
  aliens to vote.

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Voter Qualifications Residency

• Minnesota and Pennsylvania require that you be a
  citizen for a certain period of time before you
  can vote.
• Minnesota 3 months
• Pennsylvania 1 month
• In order to vote, you have to be a legal resident
  of the state you are voting in.
• Some states require that you live there for a
  certain length of time before you can be
  considered a legal resident.
• This was done to prevent voter fraud
• Allow new residents time to become familiar with
  politics in that state.

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Voter Qualifications Residency

• For many years, states imposed a long residency
  requirement.
• 1 year in the state, 60-90 days in the county,
  and 30 days in a local ward or precinct.
• Today, most states require a much shorter time.
• Usually 30 days or so.
• Any requirement of longer than 30 days was banned
  by Congress in the Voting Rights Act of 1970 and
  the 1972 Supreme Court case of Dunn vs.
  Blumstein.
• Most states will not allow transients to claim
  residency and vote.
• Transients people who are only in the state for
  a short time.

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Voter Qualifications Age

• The 26th Amendment set the voting age at 18 in
  response to the Vietnam War and the draft.
• No state can have an age requirement of more than
  18 years old.
• Before the 26th Amendment the accepted voting age
  was 21.
• Several states did allow those under 21 to vote
  before the 26th Amendment
• Georgia (1943)
• Kentucky (1955)
• Alaska (1959)
• Hawaii (1959)

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Voter Qualifications Age

• The fight to lower the voting age to 18 started
  during WWII.
• Even though 18 year olds can vote, only about 38
  of them did in 2004.
• The highest percentage was 48 in 1972
• In some states if your birthday is after the
  primary elections, but before the general
  election, then you can vote in the primary.

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Voter Qualifications Registration

• 49 out of the 50 states require their citizens to
  register to vote.
• North Dakota is the only state that doesnt.
• Registration is a procedure of voter
  identification to prevent voter fraud.
• It gives election officials a list of potential
  voters.
• Voter registrations started in the early 1900s
  when there was a lot of voter fraud going on.

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Voter Qualifications Registration

• A potential voter must provide
• Name
• Age
• Place of birth
• Present address
• Length of residence
• Political party preference
• Voters remain registered until they
• Move
• Die
• Are convicted of a serious crime
• Are placed in a mental institution

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Voter Qualifications Registration

• Every 2-4 years, election officials are supposed
  to review the list of names, and remove anyone no
  longer eligible to vote.
• This does not always happen.
• Names of dead people are often times still on the
  lists.
• Some see the registration process as too much of
  a hassle, and hindrance to voting.
• Many people dont vote because they arent
  registered.

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Voter Qualifications Registration

• In 1993, Congress passed the Motor-Voter Law to
  make registration easier.
• This law allowed voters to register in several
  ways
• When they renewed their drivers license
• By mail
• Made registration materials available at local
  government offices
• Nearly 8 million people have registered to vote
  as a result of the Motor Voter Law.
• In most states you must be registered up to 20-30
  days before an election (except Maine and
  Wisconsin).

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Voter Qualifications Literacy

• Today, no state has a literacy qualification.
• Literacy the ability to read or write
• Literacy requirements have been used to ensure
  voters can make an informed decision
• They have also been used to prevent certain
  groups of people from voting.
• Namely African Americans in the South.
• Also Native Americans and Latinos in the
  Southwest.
• The test given to whites was easier than the test
  given to minorities.
• Some whites were actually kept from voting by the
  literacy tests.

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Voter Qualifications Literacy

• To fix this unintended problem, many states added
  grandfather clauses.
• Grandfather Clause any male voter whose father
  voted in an election before 1870 could be allowed
  to vote without taking the literacy test.
• This pretty much left out African American males.
• Literacy tests for voting were outlawed by the
  Voting Rights Act of 1970.

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Voter Qualifications Poll Tax

• Many states used to require a tax be paid in
  order to vote.
• This was known as a poll tax.
• Most all of the Southern states adopted this
  after the Civil War.
• They did it in an attempt to keep African
  Americans from voting.
• The 24th Amendment (1964) outlawed the
  requirement of a poll tax in national elections.

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Section 3Civil Rights

• The effort to give minority groups the right to
  vote started with the passage of the 15th
  Amendment in 1870.
• This amendment gave African Americans males the
  right to vote.
• Congress did not enforce the 15th Amendment
  effectively until the 1960s.
• For nearly 90 years African Americans were
  prevented from voting by
• Violence
• Literacy tests
• Poll taxes

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Civil Rights

• Many Southern governments drew districts in a way
  that divided African Americans, and allowed white
  voters to be the majority.
• This is a tactic called gerrymandering.
• Gerrymandering drawing electoral district lines
  in order to limit the voting strength of a
  particular group
• Democrats in the South refused to allow African
  Americans to be members.
• This prevented African Americans from
  participating in primary elections.
• Such primaries became known as white primaries.

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Civil Rights

• Both white primaries and gerrymandering were
  outlawed by the Supreme Court.
• White primaries (Smith v. Allwright, 1944)
• Gerrymandering (Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 1960)
• The Supreme Court struck down several practices
  designed to keep African Americans from voting in
  the 1940s and 1950s.
• The problem was it could only do so if victims
  sued.
• Many were afraid to sue because whites threatened
  them.
• Once African American leaders became involved,
  more people came forward.

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Civil Rights

• The first Civil Rights law passed to enforce the
  15th Amendment was the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
• Established the Civil Rights Commission.
• The commission was to investigate voter
  discrimination and report back to Congress and
  the President.
• Congress passed another Civil Rights Act in 1960.
• This ensured that federal voting referees were
  assigned in areas where voter discrimination had
  been found.
• These referees would help eligible voters get
  registered, and ensure the voting process was
  followed correctly.

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Civil Rights

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did much more than
  the previous two acts.
• This outlawed discrimination in employment.
• Also outlawed the use of any voter qualifications
  for the purpose of discrimination (i.e. literacy
  tests, poll tax)
• Many efforts by African American leaders to get
  African Americans registered were met by
  violence.
• Selma, Alabama
• Dr. Martin Luther King and his supporters marched
  to protest voter discrimination and were attacked
  by local and state police as well as white
  civilians.
• Two civil rights workers were killed.

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Civil Rights

• Many Americans saw this violence on television,
  and called for new, stronger laws to protect
  African American voting rights.
• In response Congress passes the Voting Rights Act
  of 1965.
• This applies to elections at all levels (local,
  state, and federal).
• The law was intended to last only 5 years, but
  has been extended four times (most recently in
  2006).
• Its provisions will run out in 2031, if it is not
  updated before then.

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Civil Rights

• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 also required that
  any changes to voting laws in states with voter
  discrimination had to be approved by the Justice
  Department.
• This pre-approval for changes to voting laws
  became known as preclearance.
• Some notable additions to the Voting Rights Act
  of 1965
• 1975
• This update outlawed literacy tests permanently.
• It also included Hispanics, Native Americans, and
  Asians.

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Section 4Voter Behavior Nonvoters

• The word idiot comes from a Greek word meaning
  the people of Athens who did not vote.
• In the 2004 presidential election, nearly 95
  million eligible voters did not vote.
• This number is even larger for off-year
  congressional elections.
• Also, the lower a political office is, the less
  likely people are to turn out to vote for it.
• More people vote in presidential elections than
  elections for Congress.
• More people vote in state elections than county
  elections.

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Voter Behavior Nonvoters

• If presidential and Congressional elections are
  in the same year, more people will vote in for
  Congress.
• This is true at the state level too

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Voter Behavior Why People Dont Vote

• Many nonvoters are cannot-voters
• Of the 95 million people who didnt vote in 2004,
  nearly 10 million were legal and illegal
  immigrants living in the U.S.
• 5 to 6 million were either too ill or had
  disabilities that kept them from voting.
• 2 to 3 million were traveling and couldnt vote.
• This also include prisoners and patients in
  mental institutions.
• Many nonvoters dont vote because they feel that
  it has little impact on the person that actually
  wins.

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Voter Behavior Why People Dont Vote

• Many nonvoters feel that no matter who wins
  things will continue to go well for them and this
  country.
• Other nonvoters refuse to vote because they dont
  trust our government or politicians.
• Most nonvoters have no feeling of political
  efficacy.
• They dont believe that their vote will truly
  influence or effect what the government does.
• They feel they have no real say in what goes on.

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Voter Behavior Why People Dont Vote

• Other factors effect voter turnout as well
• Bad weather
• Long lines at the polls
• Long ballots
• News networks projecting winners
• Despite all these reasons, the biggest cause of
  nonvoting is a simple lack of interest.

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Voter Behavior Voters vs. Nonvoters

• Those most likely to vote have certain common
  characteristics
• High income
• Education
• Long time residents of an area
• Older
• Strong party identification
• Those less likely to vote also share common
  characteristics
• Younger
• Less educated
• From rural areas

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Voter Behavior Voters vs. Nonvoters

• Those who feel that they can influence our
  government vote despite their age, income, or
  education level.
• These people have a high sense political
  efficacy.
• More competition between candidates tends to make
  more people vote despite other factors.

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Voter Behavior Studying It

• Most of what we know about voter behavior come
  from 3 sources
• Election results studying voter returns in
  areas populated by certain groups
• Survey research polling a scientifically chosen
  sample of the population
• Political socialization studies studying the
  process of how people get their political
  attitudes and ideas

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Voter Behavior Factors that Influence Voters

• Personal Characteristics
• Age, race, sex, income, religion, etc.
• Group Affiliations
• Family, friends, co-workers, party, etc.
• Psychological Factors
• Perception of parties, candidates, and issues

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Voter Behavior Sociological Factors

• Income/Occupation
• Voters with higher incomes tend to be Republican
• Professionals tend to vote Republican
• Manual workers tend to vote Democratic
• Education
• More education more likely to vote Republican

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Voter Behavior Sociological Factors

• Gender/Age
• Women favor Democrats
• Men favor Republicans
• Younger voters tend to vote for Democrats
• Older voters tend to vote for Republicans
• Religion/Ethnicity
• Protestant Christians vote Republican
• Jews and Catholics tend to vote Democratic
• African Americans tend to vote Democratic

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Voter Behavior Psychological Factors

• Party Identification
• Most significant and lasting predictor of how a
  person will vote.
• Likely to vote straight-ticket, or vote only
  for candidates from one party.
• Even though party identification is a big factor,
  its influence is slipping.
• More voters are voting split-ticket, or voting
  for candidates from different parties.
• More voters are identifying themselves as
  independents as well.

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Voter Behavior Psychological Factors

• Impression of Candidates
• The way voters view candidates can have a large
  impact on their vote.
• Voters tend to focus on ca candidates
• Personality
• Style
• Appearance
• Impression of Issues
• The more emotionally involved in an issue a voter
  is, the more influence it will have on their
  vote.
• Also, the way the issues are presented in the
  media can influence voters.