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What affects why we vote and how involved we get?

What affects why we vote and how involved we get?. LESSON 5 Voting Behavior, Public Opinion & Media Influence. How do we typically participate in the electoral process?. Who participates and why?. DEMOGRAPHICS OF AVERAGE VOTERS

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What affects why we vote and how involved we get?

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  1. What affects why we vote and how involved we get? LESSON 5 Voting Behavior, Public Opinion & Media Influence

  2. How do we typically participate in the electoral process?

  3. Who participates and why? • DEMOGRAPHICS OF AVERAGE VOTERS • EDUCATION: The more educated individual tends to be more likely to vote • AGE: Participation greater among population over age of 35 • RACE & ETHNICITY: Whites participate at higher rate  not that important when factoring in income level and education

  4. How has voting eligibility changed throughout American history? • VOTING RIGHTS & ELIGIBILITY • Original electorate (1789): Only white property-owners could vote  28% of population • Age of Jackson (1828) • Push for universal manhood suffrage • All states dropped property requirements by 1852 • African Americans • 15th AMENDMENT (1870): Black men received right to vote • “JIM CROW” LAWS:Southern states circumvented 15th Amendment  poll taxes, grandfather clauses, literacy tests

  5. How has voting eligibility changed throughout American history? • Women • States in West first gave women right to vote • 19th AMENDMENT (1920):Gave women right to vote on federal level • Voting among the young • Before Vietnam War  voting age typically 21 in most states • 26th AMENDMENT (1971): Expanded suffrage to 18-year-olds  increased activism led to change

  6. What official limits exist on a person’s right to vote? • VOTER ELIGIBILITY • Citizenship:Most states prohibit noncitizens voting rights • Residency:Usual requirement is to live within state for 10 to 30 days • Registration:Strict processes to prevent voter fraudNOT ALLOWED  mentally ill, convicted felons, homeless, dishonorable discharges

  7. What can explain why people don’t bother to show up at the polls? • LOW VOTER TURNOUT: Issues hindering people from voting • VOTER APATHY: People simply don’t care about the result • LACK OF POLITICAL EFFICACY: People fail to believe their one vote will make a difference

  8. What can explain why people don’t bother to show up at the polls? • REGISTRATION PROCESS: Strict process prevents voter fraud, but also complicates registration • OTHER BARRIERS • Voting on weekdays • Weak party efforts • Voter satisfaction • Weather

  9. What, then, influences our right to vote? • FACTORS INFLUENCING VOTING • Candidate appeal: Voting for a person, not a party  more important as electronic media grows • Party identification: Single most important predictor of who people will vote for • Issues: Voters’ choices affected by candidates’ stands regarding key points  economy usually heads list

  10. How do individuals form their political opinions? • FORMATION OF PUBLIC OPINION • POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION: The process of learning about values, beliefs, and processes that underlie a political system • Begins early in life • Continues throughout adulthood • Biggest factor  parents (“dinner table conversation”)

  11. How do individuals form their political opinions? • Agents of political socialization: What helps us form our political opinions • Family  most high school seniors identify with same political party as parents • School and education in civics • Religious belief • Peer groups • Gender and ethnicity • Influence of news media  varies with how much we read, watch television, or surf the Internet • Historical events also play a role in forming our views of the government and politics in general

  12. How do individuals form their political opinions? • PUBLIC OPINION: The sum of many individual opinions about a public person or issue • Achieved through polling of large numbers of people • Shaped by various factors • Special interest groups • Journalists, politicians, and other opinion makers • What politicians say it is • Not one simple form of a public opinion  nation too large and diverse

  13. How do individuals form their political opinions? • Public opinion serves government in three key ways • Guides leaders as they create public policy (laws) • Serves as a guard against poor or hasty decisions by leaders • Helps hold society together by creating consensus (agreement) among various groups

  14. How do we use polls to measure public opinion? • MEASURING PUBLIC OPINION • OPINION POLLS: A series of questions that provide a sample of public opinion on particular issues  systems have improved during modern age of politics • STRAW POLL: Informal survey of opinion by show of hands or preferences  not very accurate • SCIENTIFIC SAMPLING: The process of selecting a small group of people who are representative of the whole population  format of the modern opinion poll (Gallup Poll) • Widely used as a means of gathering information about public sentiment

  15. How do we use polls to measure public opinion? • Modern day opinion polls • Random samples involving 500 to 1500 respondents • Conducted by telephone, though some now are collected through the internet • Margin of error: Percentage indicator of how reliable poll is  smaller plus-minus number shows close

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