The American Voter
Examples of The American Voter in the following topics:
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The National Election Studies
- The American National Election Studies (ANES) is the leading academically run national survey of voters in the United States.
- The American National Election Studies (ANES) is the leading academically-run national survey of voters in the United States, conducted before and after every presidential election.
- The consistency of the studies, which includes asking the same questions repeatedly over time, makes it very useful for academic research.
- Early ANES data were the basis for The American Voter a seminal study of voting behavior in the United States, by Angus Campbell, Philip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald Stokes, colleagues at the University of Michigan.
- Based on one of the first comprehensive studies of election survey data (what eventually became the National Election Studies), came the conclusion that most voters cast their ballots primarily on the basis of partisan identification (which is often simply inherited from their parents), and that independent voters are actually the least involved in and attentive to politics.
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Asian Americans
- The diversity and polarization of the Asian American community makes it difficult to generalize their voting patterns.
- Like African American communities in southern states, Asian American communities have faced a long history of voter discrimination and disenfranchisement in the US .
- These newly naturalized citizens and their children make up the largest group of Asian American voters.
- In some areas voting rates are significantly higher than the US average, or the rate for non-Latino white voters.
- Explain the levels of political participation by Asian Americans in the United States
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African Americans
- For a large part of the history of the US, black voters were blocked from voting either directly or indirectly.
- Today, the average participation of African American voters is still somewhat lower than white voters, but there is great variety within these voting patterns.
- Aside from the fact that Obama won an overwhelming percent of the African American vote, there was also high levels of African American voter turnout during this election.
- This contemporary print depicts the first Black voters in the US exercising their new rights.
- Explain the institutional barriers that prevented African Americans from participating in American politics
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The Candidates
- The personal traits of candidates have become an influential factor in voters' decisions during recent elections.
- At the same time, the United States has witnessed increasing polarization between the Democratic and Republican Parties that has caused many voters to identify themselves as independents.
- For example, candidates may emphasize the importance of their families and their upbringing in humble middle-class households as a way to relate to a wide segment of American voters .
- At the same time, candidates also tend to emphasize the demographic and personality traits of their opponents that will create mistrust among voters.
- Candidates may also emphasize the excessive wealth of their opponents as a way to show how they are out of touch with the average middle-class American.
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Voting as Political Participation
- The composition of the electorate has changed radically throughout American history.
- In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as the "motor voter" law, allowing citizens to register at motor vehicle and social service offices.
- "Motor voter's" success in increasing the ranks of registered voters differs by state depending on how well the program is publicized and executed.
- Over 90 percent of Americans agree with the principle that citizens have a duty to vote.
- This is a chart illustrating voter turnout by sex and age for the 2008 U.S.
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Additional Factors: Gender, Age, Religion, Race, and Ethnicity
- According to the Pew Research Center, 66% of voters under 30 chose Obama in 2008.
- Poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation kept black voters from the polls.
- Collectively, African Americans are more involved in the American political process than other minority groups in the United States, indicated by the highest level of voter registration and participation in elections among these groups in 2004.
- Sixty-five percent of black voters turned out in the 2008 presidential election compared with 66 percent of white voters.
- Describe the voting patterns of various demographic subsets of the American electorate
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Latinos
- Latino voters are a diverse group which include long-established Tejano and Californio, Puerto Rican and Chicano voters, as well as the Cuban-American community which makes up a large bloc of voters in Miami.
- However, recently naturalized citizens from South and Central America, and their children, make up the largest group of Latino voters in the US.
- While Latino voters should not be thought of as a homogenous group, there are still some general trends for the group.
- They are, therefore, not good candidates for the type of community organizing that could rally new voters around their own interests.
- One important institutional change aimed at lowering the cost for Latino voter participation is the Language Minority Provision of the Voting Rights Act, first introduced in 1975, and then amended in 1992 and 2006.
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Factors Affecting Voter Turnout
- Many causes have been proposed for the decline in voting, including demographics, voter fatigue and voter suppression, among other things.
- Voter suppression instead attempts to reduce the number of voters who might vote against the candidate or proposition advocated by the suppressors.
- In developed countries, non-voters tend to be concentrated in particular demographic and socioeconomic groups, especially the young and the poor.
- In the United States and most Latin American nations, voters must go through separate voter registration procedures before they are allowed to vote.
- Voter suppression instead attempts to reduce the number of voters who might vote against the candidate or proposition advocated by the suppressors.
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Attempts to Improve Voter Turnout
- Any compulsion affects the freedom of an individual, and the fining of recalcitrant non-voters is an additional impact on a potential recalcitrant voter.
- In the United States and most Latin American nations, voters must go through separate voter registration procedures before they are allowed to vote.
- lowering the average time voters have to spend waiting in lines
- In other countries, like France, voting is held on the weekend, when most voters are away from work.
- Therefore, the need for time off from work as a factor in voter turnout is greatly reduced.
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Issue Voting
- Issue voting is the process by which voters select candidates based on how closely their views on certain issues match the voter's own.
- Moderates, who account for a large segment of the American population, become more alienated as each party adopts more extreme viewpoints.
- This becomes difficult when the available candidates have viewpoints that are vastly different from a voter's views.
- When the aforementioned situations take place, a voter may revert to party voting or may base their decision off of the individual personalities of the candidates.
- Issue voting has affected the decisions Americans make at the voting booth.