1. “Nonvoting is not a social disease”
Americans are very politically interested and aware, but that does not translate to high turnout
Disagreements over the importance of nonvoting
Nonvoters similar to voters in attitude
“class bias” of voters
“Nonvoting is not a social disease”
“I don’t believe in making it easy for apathetic, lazy people to vote.”

2. Why do people vote the way they do in elections?
Voting
Why do people vote the way they do in elections?

3. Voting Party Identification
Voters most often vote for a person from the party we prefer
Myth of voting for the person and not the party
Pure independents =
(non-leaners) have the lowest voter turnout
Often side with presidential winner

4. Voting Candidate Appeal
Voters choose competing candidates for different offices separately
Character is assessed
Press often asks about personal private lives and lifestyles
Often focus on negative aspects
Good judgment
Integrity
Competence
Energy
Family background
Personal charm
military
"I think one thing we worry about is the fact that often times you have a President who is of admirable character, but we only really see that many years later. Americans in 1952 did not like Harry Truman very much. His poll ratings were in the high 20's. It really took only an additional generation or two to really see great qualities that we didn't see at the time. That's something I think we should keep mind as we are looking at Presidents and Presidential candidates in real time at the moment." - MICHAEL BESCHLOSS

5. Voting Issues For issues to be important
Candidates often intentionally obscure their position on issues
Voters usually do not agree with all the positions on issues of any one candidate
For issues to be important
Issues that motivate a particular segment of the electorate to vote
Increasingly used through ballot initiatives