Voters and Voter Behavior

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Voters and Voter Behavior

• U.S. Government
• Chapter 6

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Vocabulary Terms Chapter 6

• Suffrage
• Franchise
• Electorate
• Transient
• Registration
• Purge
• Poll books
• Literacy
• Poll Tax
• Gerrymandering
• Injunction
• Preclearance
• Off-year election
• Political efficacy
• Political Socialization

• Gender gap
• Party identification
• Straight-ticket voting
• Split-ticket voting
• Independent

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The Right to Vote

• Suffrage
• Franchise
• Electorate

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Chapter 6 Voters and Voter Behavior

• History of Voting Rights
• Expansion of the Electorate
• 205 Million eligible voters
• Benjamin Franklin often lampooned this situation.
  He told of a man whose only property was a
  jackass and noted that the man would lose the
  right to vote if his jackass dies. Now, asked
  Franklin, in whom is the right of suffrage? In
  the man or the Jackass?

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Extending Suffrage

• Religious Qualifications
• Property Qualifications
• Direct election of Senators
• 15th Amendment Civil War Amendments
• 1920 - Gender 19th Amendment
• 1960s - Enforcement of Voting Rights acts
• 1961 - 23rd Amendment District of Columbia
  added to Presidential electorate
• 1964 - 24th Amendment eliminated the poll tax
• 1971 - 26th Amendment 18 year olds

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Voting Qualifications

• State defined with minimum Federal reg.
• Universal Requirements
• Citizenship
• Must be a U.S. Citizen
• Residence
• To prevent out of state residents from disrupting
  state politics (Kansas)
• Age
• Cannot be prevented if 18 may be allowed if
  younger 17 year olds voting in primaries

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Other Qualifications

• Registration
• All States except North Dakota
• Literacy
• Not a requirement
• Grandfather Clause
• Tax Payment
• 24th Amendment outlawed poll tax
• Persons Denied right to Vote
• Mental institutions Convicts Dishonorably
  discharged from military (not all States)

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Fifteenth Amendment

• Registration Laws
• Jim Crow laws continued to prevent blacks from
  voting
• Gerrymandering
• The practice of drawing electoral district lines
  in order to limit the voting strength of a
  particular party or group.

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Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Outlaws discrimination in several areas,
  especially in job-related matters.
• Forbids the use of any voter registration or
  literacy requirements in an unfair or
  discriminatory manner.

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Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Made the 15th Amendment a truly effective part of
  the Constitution.
• This act applied to all elections held anywhere
  in this country State and local, as well as
  federal.

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Preclearance (p. 162)

• That no new election laws, and no changes in
  existing election laws, could go into effect in
  any of those States unless first approved given
  preclearance by the Department of Justice.
• Examples
• Location of polling places
• The boundaries of election districts
• Deadlines in the election process
• Changes from ward or district election to
  at-large elections
• Qualifications candidates must meet in order to
  run for office

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Voter Behavior

• Nonvoters
• Idiots Greek word for non-voter
• Why People Do Not Vote
• Cannot-Voters
• Religious beliefs
• Mental health care
• Jail

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Actual Non-Voters

• In 2000 80 million who could have voted did
  not.
• Factors Affecting Turnout
• Satisfied, Apathy,
• Inconvenient, registration requirements, long
  ballots, long lines, Bad weather
• Time zone fallout
• Lack of interest

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Voters and Voting Behavior

• How and Why do people vote the way they do? It
  is predictable?

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Sociological Factors

• Age
• Race
• Family
• Income, Occupation
• Education
• Gender
• Religion, Ethnic Background
• Geography

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Psychological Factors

• Party Identification
• Candidates and Issues
• Other issues
• Straight ticket voting
• Split ticket voting
• Independents