issue voting

Examples of issue voting in the following topics:

• Issue Voting

  • In contrast to party voting, issue voting is when voters base their election decisions on political issues.
  • The process of issue voting involves voters comparing their opinions about how certain issues should be addressed against candidates' stances on these issues.
  • While issue voting has risen in recent years, many factors can complicate it.
  • Similarly, issue salience is when people vote on the basis of how relevant an issue is to their lives.
  • Describe issue voting and its relationship to larger trends in the electorate

• Policy Preferences

  • In some elections, voters are motivated to vote a certain way based on specific policy preferences, which is called issue voting.
  • In "issue voting," voters cast their vote based primarily on specific political issues .
  • Many factors can complicate issue voting.
  • Many viewed these issues as equally salient, and had a hard time picking one issue to vote on.
  • Differentiate between issue voting and party voting and the reason(s) a voter would opt for one or the other

• The Candidates

  • Although issues currently remain central in many voters' election decisions, issue voting can be difficult when candidates are closely aligned in their stances on given issues.
  • Issue voting can also be problematic when candidates' stances differ drastically from those of voters.
  • This increasing lack of party identification combined with the difficulties that arise with issue voting has resulted in voting decisions based on the personality and demographic traits of candidates.
  • Candidates are most often evaluated on their party affiliation and stances on prominent issues.
  • However, when the aforementioned problems with party identification and issue voting arise, the personal characteristics of candidates may enter into campaign strategies and voting decisions.

• The Impact of Minor Parties

  • Third-party candidates exert influence by focusing the election on particular issues and taking votes away from major candidates.
  • Third parties usually organize and mobilize around a single issue or position, putting pressure on candidates from major political parties to address these issues.
  • Although it is unlikely that a third party candidate will ever garner a plurality of the vote, they can influence the election by taking votes away from a major party candidate.
  • This was at issue during the 2000 election when Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader took votes away from Democrat Al Gore, a situation that some felt contributed to the victory of Republican George W.
  • Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, is accused of "stealing" votes away from Al Gore, a Democrat, in the 2000 election.

• Women vs. Men

  • In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote and, today, women vote at similar rates to men.
  • Other approaches examine the question of the rationality of voting: does voting serve the self-interest of any given individual, and what are the interests or issues that might change someone's voting patterns?
  • In spite of this long-term institutional barrier to voting, women today vote at similar rates to men.
  • Even when considering so-called "women's issues", such as reproductive choices and rights or equal pay legislation, women do not vote as a bloc.
  • Instead, while they may identify these issues as more important than men, women tend to be split over the correct solutions to a problem.

• Latinos

  • On average, Latino citizens continue to vote at significantly lower rates than non-Latino white voters.
  • On average Latino citizens continue to vote at significantly lower rates that non-Latino white voters.
  • There are many potential approaches that can be taken to explain variations in voting rates.
  • Others examine the question of the rationality of voting: does voting serve the self-interest of any given individual, and what are the interests or issues that might change someone's voting patterns?
  • As such, people may live for many years in the US without being able to vote.

• African Americans

  • There are different explanations for voting patterns.
  • Others examine the question of rationality in voting: does voting serve the self-interest of any given individual, and what are the interests or issues that might change someones voting patterns?
  • During the early Reconstruction period, Black residents voted in large numbers .
  • While the fifteenth amendment provided legal protection for voting rights based on race, during the Jim Crow era, politicians created new institutions to suppress the vote of Black residents.
  • This act removed a large institutional barrier to voting and helped to further protect voting rights.

• Additional Factors: Gender, Age, Religion, Race, and Ethnicity

  • Certain factors like age, gender, race, and religion help describe why people vote and who is more likely to vote.
  • This rise in youth vote is partly a result of voter registration and mobilization efforts by groups like Rock the Vote.
  • This may be due to the political prominence of issues of importance to women, such as abortion, education, and child welfare.
  • Voters who are part of the Christian right hold socially conservative positions on issues including school prayer, stem cell research, homosexuality, contraception, abortion, and pornography.
  • The voters that identify with the Christian right are highly motivated and driven to deliver a viewpoint on issues they care about.

• Socioeconomic Factors

  • Independently, income has some effect on whether or not people vote.
  • The more educated a person is, the more likely he or she is to vote.
  • They are likely to form opinions about political issues and engage in discussions.
  • This is a figure illustrating the different rates of voting in the 2008 U.S.
  • The higher income, the more likely a person is to vote.

• Voting as Political Participation

  • Voting is the most quintessential form of political participation, although many eligible voters do not vote in elections.
  • Every citizen gets one vote that counts equally .
  • Still, many people do not vote regularly.
  • Social, cultural, and economic factors can keep people from voting, or sometimes barriers to voting are informal.
  • More voters were mobilized during this period of political upheaval and people focused on issues of race relations, social welfare, and the Vietnam War.