This document discusses factors that influence voter turnout and voting decisions. It examines who votes and who doesn't based on demographics like age, gender, income, and education. It explores how political views are shaped by socialization, party identification, and attitudes. Voting decisions are analyzed through perspectives like retrospective voting based on past performance, prospective voting based on future plans, and economic theories weighing costs and benefits. Media and interpersonal influences on political knowledge are also summarized.

1. POL 140-04
Spring 2015

3.  Who votes –and who doesn’t?
 What makes people vote the way they do?
 Why don’t people vote?

5.  Age Older >Younger
 Gender Women > Men
 Income Richer > Poorer
 Education College Degree > HS Graduate
 Race and Ethnicity Mixed Evidence

10. Truman Dewey
Panel Study: Use a sample of the population and ask them
throughout campaign if their views have changed over time.

11. • Our voting decision takes places in a social context.
• Inherit partisanship from family and peers
• Strong pull when similar socio-economic status (SES) and religion
• Impact of political homogeneity
• What about “Cross-Pressured” voters?

15.  Political Socialization
 Party ID
 Political Attitudes
 Voting Decision
 How are attitudes formed?
 Feelings toward the
Democratic and
Republican candidates
 How well each party
manages government
 Group interests (“knows
people like me”)
 Domesticpolicy issues
 Foreign policy issues

16.  Voting based on past performance
 If you are the incumbent:
 Remember great things?
 “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
 If you are the challenger:
 Remember problems?
 “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

17.  Voting based off of future considerations
 If you are the incumbent:
 Plans for a new term if re-elected
 What will future look like with challenger?
 If you are the challenger:
 Reject incumbent’s policies
 Vote for change in years ahead

20. R= PxB – C + D
Economic theory is based on assigning costs and benefits to
voting—and then making a decision on whether to vote or not.
Isn’t it always logical to vote? Downs would say, “Maybe”
Probability of
vote
“mattering”
Benefits of
Voting
Costs of
Voting
“Civic Duty”Reward
fromVoting

21. POCKETBOOKVOTING SOCIOTROPICVOTING
Deals with your
personal finances
Deals with national
indicators of financial
health (e.g. deficit)

23. Citizens’ political
knowledge hasn’t increased
in the last few decades.

24.  Party ID
 Is candidate a Republican or a Democrat?
 Interpersonal Communications
 Friends and Family; “Opinion Leaders”
 The Media
 Agenda-Setting, Priming, and Framing
 Idea of “Representativeness”
 People compare actual candidate to “ideal” version

26.  Legal Obstacles
 Attitude Changes
 Voter Mobilization
 Decrease in Social Connectedness
 Generational Changes
 The “Rational Nonvoter”