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This paper will explore some of the conceptual difficulties associated with explaining individual participation in extremist politics. Policymakers and scholars interested in the mo-tivating factors behind terrorism and extremism need to move beyond the limited assump-tions associated with traditional analyses that all too frequently presume that individuals are engaged in a constant struggle to accrue the greatest number of material goods. Certainly individuals do strive for pecuniary gain. Still, such a framework may be better apt to describe the employee who changes one workplace for a higher paying substitute or even the astute politician altering their party?s platform in a bid to appeal to the electorate?s sway. Conjec-tures that all people seek to improve their material lot fail to explain the sacrifices made while engaging in other activities, particularly politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on the premise that voter turnout is declining in the United States. Using the United States 2000 primary elections, I test some hypothesis regarding variables that might foster voter participation. In particular, the paper argues that scheduling elections on a holiday day instead of a working day, and facilitating the registration procedures will have a positive effect. In order to test these hypotheses, I test if primaries held on a Saturday or a Sunday and that allow independents to vote experience higher levels of participation. The results are mixed and counterintuitive: while states allowing independents did experience significative positive results, scheduling an election on a weekend has significant effects on the opposite direction. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sizable literature has demonstrated the importance of social networks for both electoral decision-making (e.g., Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995) and political participation (e.g., Mutz 2002). However, the question of how networks operate over time has been largely unexamined. Do voters discuss politics with the same individuals during a general election as during a primary? Moreover, how do the characteristics of an individual's network - in terms of density, composition, and the content of political discussion - change over time? And what are the potential behavioral consequences of such changes (or non-changes)?I address these questions using an original longitudinal study following a group of Franklin County, Ohio Republican primary voters. The sample of voters was first surveyed in the summer of 2006 after the gubernatorial primary; the follow-up survey was conducted in late 2006 after the general election. Given that both the original survey and the general election follow-up were specially designed to tap the frequency, content, structure, and context of interpersonal political discussion, the data are particularly appropriate for answering the questions posed. This paper makes several contributions to the study of voting behavior and public opinion. The county-wide network panel study is among the first to examine voters' social networks over time and across multiple electoral contexts, and therefore provides a first look at how people's social circles react to political developments. By thinking temporally about social influence, this paper provides a better understanding of how social channels enable (or inhibit) information flow and mobilization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide variety of organizations attempt to influence the outcome of elections through canvassing, including candidate organizations, political parties, 527s, and interest groups. The experimental literature on voter participation confirms the intuition that face-to-face canvassing is the optimal mode of inducing voter turnout. However, that literature has done little to advance a theoretical understanding of why canvassing works, except to say that a personal approach is best. This paper seeks to contribute to the development of a theoretical understanding of how mobilization works. Do people respond differently to different types of canvassers (who vary on dimensions such as race, gender, being knowledgeable about the election, friendliness), or is personal contact the most important dimension? In this paper, I will present findings from a series of focus groups conducted around the United States in the summer of 2006 that will serve as the basis for future experimental work. In these groups voters will openly discuss their experiences with canvassing and will also react to a video simulation that will measure their implicit reactions to different types of canvassers. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a study to examine link between economic voting and strong incumbent showings during poor economic times in the U.S. Topics discussed include impact of non-partisan voters on election outcomes, recent partisan trends across the industrialized world, and national election surveys of Great Britain, New Zealand, and Canada. It further discusses micro-level factors affecting economic voting.

Legislative districts in the 50 states will be redrawn following the completion of the 2010 United States census. Thirty-five require that districts be compact, which is believed to make gerrymandering - designing legislative districts so as to advantage one party - more difficult (Chambers and Miller, 2009). Geographic compactness also affects how convenient it is for legislators to travel within their districts to meet with their constituents, how easy it is for election officials to administer elections, and for constituents to participate in the legislative process. When districts are compact neighbors having similar interests are more likely to live in the same district. There are now more than a dozen competing proposals for evaluating the shapes of legislative districts. This article clears away some confusion over area compactness measures by demonstrating that nine proposed measures of district compactness fail to reliably measure compactness, while at least four other proposed measures of district compactness are equivalent to one simpler measure of area compactness. By providing counterexamples, we show that nine proposed measures of area compactness assign the same value to shapes having different compactness levels, and thus are unreliable measures. Then, we provide a mathematical induction proof showing that all area-to-square-of-perimeter measures (or its reciprocal or square root) rank the compactness of any two sets of redistricting plans in the exact same order. This kind of index of compactness is conceptually and computationally simpler than others and should be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the results of a content analysis of over 400 network news stories and an estimated of 3,000 local news stories broadcast on the airwaves in New York, Los Angeles and Miami during the days leading up to the 2004 election. A comparison between the election coverage on Spanish- and English-language news is also presented. Determining media content may be helpful in explaining the lag in political participation among Spanish speakers in the U.S.

This article examines the determinants of voter turnout in U.S. Supreme Court elections between 2000-2004. The type of selection system employed by the state is one of the main factors that should affect voter turnout. Several studies have been conducted to investigate factors influencing voter turnout in judicial elections. One of the studies was by Philip Dubois, who investigated factors influencing voter turnout in state Supreme Court elections in non-Southern states between 1948 and 1974.

Presents research which examined the transfer of party electoral strength in U.S. elections. Assessment of the advantages of the Republican Party over the Democratic Party; Analysis of the complexity of federal system of elections; Problems associated with the transferral of partisan electoral strength.

Presents research which examined the role of women political consultants in the U.S. Congressional campaigns. Impact of women political consultants on the outcome of campaigns; Assessment of the political participation of elite women; Analysis of the existence of gender gap in U.S. politics.

Documents changes in voting technology in the U.S. and assesses their impact on unrecorded votes in the 2004 election. Outline of an agenda for assessing the intended and unintended effects of Help America Vote Act of 2002; Impact of full-face electronic voting machines and central-count optical scan systems on unrecorded votes; Background on reform efforts.

Legislative activity in the states demonstrates that the issue of felon disenfranchisement is rising on the public agenda both within and outside Southern states. An estimated 3.9 million citizens, or one out of every fifty adults, has lost the right to vote because of a felony conviction and it is widely acknowledged that felon disenfranchisement has a clear disproportionate impact on the African American population (Fellner and Mauer 1998). Felon disenfranchisement policies may also have affected the outcome of past elections (Uggen and Manza 2002). Historic practices vary widely across the states (Mauer and Kansel 2005, M. Colgate Love 2005), and recent legislative efforts across the states diverge in content and approach as well. In this paper, we draw upon theories of agenda setting to explore factors that are shaping the felon disenfranchisement debate and which may provide an indication of the potential for significant policy change regarding the franchise. Agenda setting theory suggests that interest groups, state and citizen ideology, political context, state resources, and administrative infrastructure influence the ability of issues to reach the public agenda. We use cross-sectional time series to analyze the attempts of state legislatures in the fifty states to restore the franchise to convicted felons from 2001 through 2005. Findings demonstrate that interest groups, political context and administrative reforms are significant influences on attempts to restore voting rights, when controlling for regional effects. Specific administrative structures and state environments receptive to administrative reform may represent an avenue for policy change across the states. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is co-authored by Lorn Foster, of Pomona college.In 1960, the Supreme Court ruled in Gomillion v. Lightfoot that a 27-sided electoral district drawn to restrict blacks' opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice violated the equal protection clause. 35 years later, the Court ruled in Bush v. Vera that an oddly-shaped electoral district drawn to enhance the opportunity of minority voters to elect the candidate of their choice violated the equal protection clause. Looking at how the Court's interpretation of the 14th amendment has changed, we ask whether it should take a racially neutral or racially affirmative position regarding the ability of minority voters to elect candidates of their choice? We contend that the Court's application of the doctrines of strict scrutiny and compelling state interest has become increasingly antithetical to the political interests of minority voters. We will analyze approximately twelve pivotal voting rights cases decided between 1960 and 1994. In so doing, we will also consider how periodic strengthening of the VRA, improvements in redistricting technology, and partisan imperatives to protect incumbency have combined to facilitate the crafting of majority-minority electoral district. We will also address the underlying federalism and balance-of-power issues at play: a) how states are wedged between Congress' intent, the Justice Department's oversight, and the Supreme Court's interpretation of key provisions of the VRA, and b) how the VRA itself is buffeted between Congress' and the Court's interpretation of it. Here, we argue that minority political power faces erosion by institutional, doctrinal and constitutional battles over the VRA ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine legislative elections over 40 years, particularly in the South. Has the shift from one-party Democratic south to (increasingly) Republican south been one marked by competition or conversion of district seats? That is, as Democratic incumbents retired, did the districts switch from uncontested Democratic incumbents to uncontested Republican seats (conversion), or did the two parties contest the district for some period of time (contestation). In other words, what is the pattern of change in the South as Republicans began to replace Democratic dominance? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the elimination of the regularly occurring legislative sessions that convened after the November congressional elections with the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, Congress still occasional meets in a lame duck session. In fact, such sessions are becoming commonplace, with the convening of post-election sessions in 5 of the last 6 congresses. These sessions are comprised of a mix of members who will return to serve in the subsequent congress and of lame ducks: defeated members and retirees. As a result, lame duck sessions would seem to differ significantly from the regular sessions that met prior to the elections. Past opponents of the lame duck sessions argued departing members showed dramatic changes in their voting behavior as a result of the severed linkages with constituents. Lame ducks, it was claimed, sought to p! lacate interests other than those they represented. If that is the case, we might expect to find noticeable differences across regular and lame duck sessions in the effectiveness of party leaders to craft an agenda and to keep their fellow partisans in the fold to support that agenda. We analyze roll call behavior and party cohesion across sessions to answer two questions. First, whether departing members make notable changes in their voting behavior in their days in office. Second, we seek to determine whether the nature of party pressures and party leadership changes in lame duck sessions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, election turnout rates in the United States and Canada started to converge, in part due to an increase in interest which led to higher turnout in the United States, and in part due to a generational-induced decline in turnout in Canada. Based on the theory that higher rates of participation are commonly associated with lower socioeconomic bias in participation (Lijphart, APSR 1997), I will use National Election Studies data from both countries to examine whether the recent changes in turnout levels have resulted in lower turnout bias in the United States and higher turnout bias in Canada (using standard SES variables). Possible partisan consequences will be discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]