Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Prentice Hall PoliticalScienceInteractive Shea, Green, and Smith Living Democracy Chapter 1 Special Topic Voter Turnout

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Securing the Right to Vote The elimination of property qualifications ( ) The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) Continued denial of voting rights ( ) The Civil Rights Act, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, and the Voting Rights Act,

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Voter Turnout in Presidential and Congressional Elections

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections,

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Voting: Registration Spanish language registration forms, where they are used, may ease the burden of registration for some

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Voting: Registration In an effort to make registration easier, states have made registration forms available at motor vehicle stations, schools, public buildings, and even highway tollbooths

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Changes in Voting Eligibility Standards since 1870

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall The Politics of Voter Turnout The stimulus of competition Political alienation Intensity of opinions

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall The Politics of Voter Turnout These college students feel responsible to vote and line up on campus to fill out absentee ballots

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Voter Turnout in Western Democracies Average Turnout

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Registration and Voting in the World’s Parliamentary Elections

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Percentage of African Americans Registered to Vote,

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Nonvoting: What Difference Does It Make? “I’m not going to shed any crocodile tears if people don’t care enough to vote….I’d be extremely happy if nobody in the United States voted except for the people who thought about the issues and made up their own minds and wanted to vote.” - the late Senator Sam Ervin A huge army of nonvoters, “hangs over the democratic process like a bomb ready to explode and change the course of history.” -Arthur Hadley

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Why People Don’t Vote

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Voting on the Basis of Party In the absence of reasons to vote otherwise, people depend on party identification to simplify their voting choices. Dramatic increase in self-declared Independents since 1970s Party Identification An informal and subjective affiliation with a political party that most people acquire in childhood

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Voting on the Basis of Candidates 1980s mark a critical threshold in the emergence of a candidate-centered era Increasingly, campaigns focus on the negative elements of candidates’ history and personality Candidate Appeal How voters feel about a candidate’s background, personality, leadership ability, and other personal qualities

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall Voting on the Basis of Issues Prospective Issue Voting Voting based on what a candidate pledges to do in the future about an issue if elected Retrospective Issue Voting Holding incumbents responsible for past performance on issues