1. Voters and Voting Behavior

2. Long-term trends
1. elimination of restrictions on voting rights = expanded electorate
2. states powers of election have greatly been reduced
Voter turn out s low but stable
Original electorate = 1789, property and tax qualifications meant only white male property owners. (1 in 15 males)
Jacksonian Democracy = elimination of property and voting qualifications. By 1850 most white males could vote

3. Voting Amendments 15th 19th 23rd 24th 26th Voting Rights Act
Males regardless of race (polling taxes still kept blacks from voting)
19th
Women (prior – New York and some western states)
23rd
Washington DC
24th
No polling taxes
26th
Minimum age 18
Voting Rights Act
Helped to enforce 15th amendment 95 years later.

4. Factors that Influence Voting
Education – More education, more likely to vote
Income – More income, more likely to vote
Age – older people are more likely to vote until age 70
Turn out between is starting to increase
Younger usually support Dems
Older usually support Rep

5. Factors Con’t Gender – women vote more than men (54% of all voters)
Religion – Jews and Catholics more likely to vote than protestants
Race – whites have higher voter turnout than minorities. However, if you remove income and education statistics, blacks have higher voter turnout.
*Usually a question regarding race and voting

6. Nonvoting 230 million voting age people in US
60% voted in 2008 presidential election
Majority does not vote in nonpresidential elections
Lower than in most other western democracies

7. Factors that Decrease Voter Turnout
Voter Registration – reduce fraud but create an obstacle for people to freely vote. Miss deadlines, etc
Decline in Political Efficacy
Political Efficacy = Belief that political participation and voting makes a difference
Low level of efficacy = low belief that it matters

8. Factors Con’t
Frequency of Elections – America has more elections than any other Western democracy. Causes confusion, and lack of want to participate
Weekday, non-holiday voting – hard to vote when you work.

9. Table B-1:
To what region of the country do most of these statistics relate?
What information is compared?
What general pattern do you notice relating to the percent of white and nonwhite registered voters?
Table B-2:
To what place do the statistics in this table relate?
What general pattern do you notice relating to the total numbers of white to nonwhite voting age populations? Which group is larger?
What general pattern do you notice relating to the percentages of white and nonwhite registered voters? Which group is larger?
What anomaly exists in the statistics of percentages of white registered voters? How could these numbers be explained? What problem is suggested by these numbers?