Participation and Voting

• Political participation includes various forms of engagement, such as voting, discussing politics, attending political meetings, forming interest groups and PACs, contacting public officials, campaigning for a candidate or political party, contributing money to a candidate or political party, running for office, and protesting government decisions.

  • While most of these behaviors are conventional and acceptable channels of representative government, less conventional behaviors are sometimes used to influence government decisions.

  • Americans generally disapprove of unconventional behaviors.

• Voting is the most common form of political participation in the United States, but Americans are less likely to vote than citizens of other countries.

  • The right to vote or suffrage is a political right that belongs to those who meet certain requirements set by law.

• The composition of the American electorate has changed throughout history, with two major trends: the elimination of restrictive requirements and the transfer of more authority from the states to the federal government.

• Changes in Voting Requirements in the US:

  • Before 1800, religious qualifications, property ownership, and tax payments were required to vote.

  • In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment eliminated race disqualifications for voting.

  • In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment allowed for the direct election of Senators.

  • In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment eliminated gender disqualifications for voting.

  • Federal civil rights legislation and court decisions eliminated grandfather clauses, white primaries, and literacy requirements for voting.

  • In 1961, the Twenty-Third Amendment allowed residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.

  • In 1964, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment eliminated poll taxes in federal elections.

  • In 1971, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the minimum age for voting in federal elections to 18.

  • Voting behavior is influenced by various models, including rational-choice voting, retrospective voting, prospective voting, and party-line voting.

• The Progressive Movement of the early 20th century fostered the development of mechanisms for increased direct participation, such as the direct primary, recall, referendum, and initiative.

  • Although the recall, referendum, and initiative do not exist at the national level, several states allow voters to approve or disapprove ballot initiatives on specific issues.

• Voter turnout in the United States has decreased compared to other nations and over time.

  • Voter turnout is higher if the election is perceived as important, and higher in presidential elections than in off-year elections.

  • Reasons for low voter turnout may include an expansion of the electorate, failure of political parties to mobilize voters, no perceived differences between the candidates or parties, and mistrust of government.

Types of Elections:

• Primary elections are nominating elections where voters select the candidates who will run for office in the general election. There are several types of primaries:

  • Closed primary: only voters registered with the party may vote for the candidate. Voters must select a primary in advance.

  • Open primary: voters may vote for candidates of either party, regardless of their own affiliation. Voters make the decision of which party to support in the voting booth.

  • Blanket primary: voters may vote for candidates of either party for different offices. Used in California, Washington, and Louisiana.

  • Runoff primary: held when no candidate receives a majority of votes. The top two candidates face each other in a runoff.

• General elections: voters choose from among all the candidates nominated by political parties or running as independents.

• Special elections: held to decide on an issue before a primary or general election, such as to fill a vacancy in the Senate.

When Elections Are Held:

• Local, state, and federal laws determine when elections are held.

• Congressional and presidential elections are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November every two and four years, respectively.

Congressional Elections:

• Midterm elections occur during the even-numbered year without a presidential election.

• Voter turnout in off-year elections is lower than during presidential election years.

• The popularity of a presidential candidate may create a coattail effect, allowing lesser-known or weaker candidates from the presidential candidate’s party to win by riding the “coattails” of the nominee.

Presidential Elections:

• Candidates begin exploring and announcing their candidacy months or even years before the election.

• States use presidential primaries and caucuses to determine whom the state delegates to the national party convention will support. Iowa still uses caucuses, but most states use the presidential preference primary.

  • Each party holds a national nominating convention in the summer before the general election to choose their presidential and vice-presidential nominees, write the party platform, and bring unity to the party.

• Candidates then campaign for the general election and participate in televised debates.

  • The general election determines which candidate wins the electoral college vote for each state.

• The electoral college is a group of 538 electors, each state having a number of electors equal to its senators and representatives in Congress.

  • The candidate who wins a majority of popular votes in a state wins all the state's electoral votes in the electoral college (winner-take-all). The candidate who wins 270 or more electoral votes wins the election.

Partisanship in Elections:

• Maintaining elections: These occur when the traditional majority party retains power based on the loyalty of voters.

• Deviating elections: These occur when the minority party wins with the support of majority-party members, independents, and new voters, but the long-term party preferences of voters remain unchanged.

• Critical elections: These indicate sharp changes in existing patterns of party loyalty due to changing social and economic conditions. For example, elections of 1860, 1896, and 1932 were critical elections.

• Realigning elections: These occur when the minority party wins by building a new coalition of voters that continues over successive elections. This is usually associated with a national crisis, such as the Great Depression.

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to create a new coalition of southerners, African Americans, the poor, Catholics and Jews, labor union members, and urban dwellers during the Great Depression.

• Dealigning elections: These occur when party loyalty becomes less important to voters, as may be seen with the increase in independents and split-ticket voting.

Campaign Finance

• Political campaigns are expensive, with the Republican and Democratic parties raising over $1.1 billion for the 2000 elections.

• The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971 placed restrictions on campaign funds, required disclosure of contributions and expenditures, and limited the amount candidates could donate to their own campaigns.

  • Taxpayers were allowed to designate a donation on their tax return to major political party candidates starting in the 1976 presidential election.

• After Watergate, the FECA was amended to create the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to enforce the Act and establish public financing for presidential candidates.

  • The amendment also limited contributions, prohibited foreign contributions, and restricted PACs.

  • The Supreme Court declared in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) that spending limits established by the FECA Amendments of 1974 were unconstitutional and that the FECA ban on self-financed campaigns was unconstitutional.

• The use of “soft money,” donations to political parties that could be used for general purposes, was banned in federal campaigns by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002.

  • The BCRA also increased limits on individual and group contributions to candidates.

• The Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC (2010) ruling found limiting funding from businesses, unions, and other groups for their own candidate efforts to be unconstitutional.

  • While the McCutcheon v. FEC (2014) decision ruled against the "aggregate limit" rule that prevented citizens from giving campaign contributions to many candidates and political parties.

Characteristics of Modern Campaigns:

• A political campaign is an organized effort to influence voters with a clear structure and staff to carry out campaign operations.

• Campaigns can start several months or years before election day and are often long.

  • Campaign costs have been increasing, limiting opportunities for individuals to run for office, and leading to interest groups having a larger influence through donations to candidates and the development of PACs and superPACs.

• The duration of an election cycle depends on the office being sought, with members of the House of Representatives running every two years and members of the Senate running on a longer cycle.

• The use of social media in politics has changed the way campaigns are run, providing candidates with a means to speak directly to voters without paying for advertising and allowing for fundraising, sharing of information, and public opinion gauging.

  • Social media has made politicians and candidates more accessible and accountable to voters, particularly young people.