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In this paper we look again at the distinction between independent voters "leaners" and partisans. We find some important similarities between "pure" independents and independents classified as "leaners." We argue that although independent leaners may be similar to partisans on some measures, they are behaviorally and attitudinally distinct from partisans in important ways. Even more importantly, the behavioral similarity between partisans and leaners changes when there are more than two candidates on offer. The behavioral similarity of leaners to partisans emphasized in previous studies can thus be understood as a product of the forced choice between the two parties that typifies the American political system. When more options are available, independent leaners take advantage of those options and do not remain loyal to the two big parties in the same measure as partisans. The position of independent leaners in the US is thus loosely analogous to the position tactical voters in multi-party systems in that they are compelled by the party system to choose between the lesser of two evils. Our argument suggests that earlier results and interpretations of independents reflected the specific two party choice settings of the 1950s through the 1980s. Furthermore, even assuming a behavioral similarity to partisans, leaners have distinct attitudes towards politics and the political system that put them far away from being standard Michigan model-type voters. We begin by presenting a brief review of the sizable literature on this topic. From here we present some simple evidence that supports an alternative interpretation of leaners as neither partisans nor "pure" independents, but as "critical citizens." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the relationship between constituency preferences and legislators' votes has been fundamental for empirical inquiry about representation. The most common approach to this type of research is dyadic and focuses on how members of Congress represent their geographic constituents. These studies account for member voting behavior with rationales including representational style, ideology, partisanship, and constituent preferences (e.g., Fenno 1978; Levitt 1996; Cox and McCubbins 1993; Canes-Wrone, Brady, and Cogan 2004). By also taking voter heterogeneity into account, however, Bailey and Brady (1998) present a unique empirical analysis for explaining representational linkages. Their analysis provides evidence that studies of representation based on analysis of roll call voting which fail to account for voter heterogeneity will overestimate the impact of the party and undervalue constituency influence. Bailey and Brady, however, measure voter heterogeneity with demographic variables which do not reliably indicate voter heterogeneity on the policy issue they assess (as I explain further in this paper).In this study I provide evidence that the connection between constituency interests and representative voting behavior is clearer when one accounts for voter heterogeneity specific to the legislation. As a research validation, I conduct ordered probit analysis of Senate voting on renewable energy legislation in the 110th Congress. As a research extension, I measure voter heterogeneity by accounting for each state's percentage of industry that generates non-renewable and renewable energy. I have collected all the data for this project and carried out extensive empirical analyses that confirm my argument above. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of research suggests that campaign contact, together with an advantageous socioeconomic profile, increases the likelihood of casting a ballot. Measurement and modeling handicaps permit a lingering uncertainty about campaign communication as a source of political mobilization however. Using data from a uniquely detailed telephone survey conducted in a pair of highly competitive 2002 U.S. Senate races, we further assess the influence of politics on participation. We conclude that vote history is the most important stimulant in voter mobilization but that holding this variable constant reveals some effect for campaign communication among intermittent voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the issue base of the gender gap in voting. Overview of the central issues on which women and men differ in U.S. politics; Factors which make women relatively liberal on issues affecting the less fortunate in society and less likely than men to vote strictly in terms of their own economic self-interest; Several models of how the issue positions of women and men can shape the gender gap in voting; Reasons women are becoming an important serial constituency in U.S. politics.

Capitalizing on the Numbers: Interest Group Activities That Promote Political Assimilation of the Mexican-American Community By Timothy S. Rich and Darrell Lovell According to the 2000 Census, those of Mexican descent compose one of the fastest growing segments of the American populace. As their numbers begin to match those of the African American community, certain political opportunities emerge. However, Mexican American rates of political action, especially in the area of voting, lag behind that of almost all other groups. This project attempts to determine the factors that lead to lower levels of political activity among this group and the effect these levels have on American politics as a whole. This project consists of two parts. First, previous research on the political activity of Mexican Americans is analyzed to determine any recent trends. From this, several factors limiting activity become evident. These factors range from basic demographics (naturalization rates, age distribution, poverty rates, etc.) to educational and psychological factors (an understanding of the political structure, apathy, etc.). These factors only partially explain the situation however. The second part focuses on major Mexican American political organizations that are traditionally considered representative of the community, in particular National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) and National Council of La Raza (NCLR). Interviews with members of both groups are compared to the written record to show a connection between what a group believes the Mexican American community needs and what this community actually desires from these groups. Any discrepancy between what the groups perceive as necessary for the community and what the community views as important may help to explain the lower rates among Mexican Americans. The interviews will also show the role these groups play in encouraging political activity among the Mexican American community. Obviously several factors contribute to the lower levels of political activity among this section of the population. This project attempts to identify each of these factors while negating often held misnomers concerning those of Mexican decent. We hope to discover what interest groups see as the main issues concerning Mexican American political behavior and what activities are most important to this community. By doing this, we hope to discover the key components pertaining to Mexican American political assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do people decide to turn out? More specifically, does the distance from a polling location increase or decrease their likelihood of voting? This central question guides the research I propose. Consistent with early work by Downs (1957), surveys indicate that the act of voting is not neutral; individuals must reallocate time from working, family, or leisure and exert energy to travel to a polling location, stand in line, cast a ballot, and proceed to the next destination. This process can inhibit the ability of some individuals to vote, implying that physical resources, in part, determine their likelihood of voting. Haspel and Knotts (2005) provide an excellent study addressing the effect of geographic distance on turnout in the Atlanta area during mayoral races. In this paper, I propose to expand on this work by examining voter roll information for much of the state of Mississippi, across several national and sub-national elections. These data allow for further heterogeneity in group characteristics to be explored, and indicate any change in turnout that may occur due to the type of election being held. Second, this paper will incorporate not only the distance that an individual lives away from their polling place, but the distance that they travel to work, including several other mitigating factors. This paper will further assess the impact of distance on voting and go beyond current studies to create more robust findings. ..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]

The article presents political issues in the U.S. as of January 2016, particularly the effects of context on vote choice. Also cited are the independent studies in the U.S. and Great Britain on the voting preference of various races and social status, a study on the negative effect of the African American population on white racial attitudes in the U.S., and the study on the role of racial context on political behavior.

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]

Can engaging in politics online increase political participation? Using a unique panel study from the 2008 election, we examine whether increasing online engagement increased the likelihood of voting in the primaries, voting in the general election, and participating in other traditional forms of participation. Our change in online engagement measure is a new, robust way of investigating the internet's effect on political participation by tracking change over the course of an entire election. Since Obama's campaign heavily focused on the internet, we also test whether increased online engagement increased the likelihood of voting for him. We find that increased online engagement increased the likelihood of voting in the general election and of voting specifically for Obama. Increased online engagement also increases the likelihood of participating in our other measures of participation, but does not increase the likelihood of participating in the primary/caucus process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the "Two Faces of Issue Voting" (1980), Carmines and Stimson argue that some issues are inherently "easy" and are understood by the public at an emotional, "gut" level, while other issues are intrinsically "hard" and require greater political sophistication and interest to process. This theory is intuitively appealing and widely cited in the American political behavior literature. Yet "easy" issues have been interpreted differently by various scholars, so how can we tell which are "easy" issues? Using survey data over time, I explore different measures of easiness, beginning with a traditional measure (connection to the vote) and then moving to other potential indicators of easy issues, examining the role of core values and group affect in conditioning issue easiness. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implicit in the gender, religion, and race literatures is the notion that identity figures prominently in models of political behavior, dictating a wide range of opinions, attitudes, and beliefs about politics. Political efficacy also contributes independently to individual political behavior, playing a significant role in determining levels of political engagement. While studies of identity and politics conceptualize political behavior as inherently a collective enterprise, measures of political efficacy maintain a myopic vision of political engagement. This study attempts to reconcile this incongruity in two ways: it advances a theory of identity and political engagement, and develops a measure of identity-based political efficacy. Based on a survey of a representative sample of Americans, this study shows that, after controlling for identity-based political efficacy, traditional measures of political efficacy become insignificant. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voting participation has long been a focus of American democratic theories. Putnam (2000) provided a sociological perspective, while Verba et. al. (1995) and traditional literature on political participation emphasized the political and economic perspectives. Based on Putnam's social capital thesis, it is important to look at an individual's social network. If the network is broken, so is the individual's drive to participate. From the traditional voting literature, however, one needs to focus more on "human capital" (SES) and "political capital" (e.g., parties and interest groups, and racial group as mobilizing political units). We test these hypotheses based on human capital variables and social capital variables, in addition to other controls such as age, internet usage, gender and immigration status. We test both between group differences and within-group differences with GSS data which provides a national sample for racial groups. We use the Bayesian approach to solve some of the methodological problems, especially the issue of missing data and under sampling for minority groups. The most important finding is that while both social capital and human capital are important for white voting participation, for blacks only bonding social capital measured by church attendance is the most important factor in enhancing political participation. SES, on the other hand, does not explain black voting participation. We conclude that social capital does explain voting participation. The utility of social capital theory, however, must be put in a racial context. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis statement for this research is the more evidence of religiosity and political consciousness among African-American women, the more likely they will vote and participate in the United States political arena to realize their political interests and aspirations. Religiosity and political consciousness are examined as a combined predictor of voting and progressive political action among African-American women. The political interests and aspirations of African-American women are explored by analyzing their progressive political action in eleven United States Presidential Elections from 1964 through 2004. The Hegelian Dialectic Method was adapted in this study to explain the seven dialectical phases of religiosity and political consciousness as determinants of progressive political action among African-American women. The seven dialectical phases were based on the Hegelian Dialectic that identifies the Absolute Spirit placing emphasis on the dialectical relationship between Spirit, God and historical conditions that society and an individual respectively undergoes. The highest phase of development is the Absolute Spirit. By identifying seven dialectic phases, I posited that religiosity and political consciousness enables African-American women to move increasingly to the highest phase of consciousness: progressive political action. The research methodology employed in this research was triangulation. Quantitative data consisted of the National Opinion Research Center of General Social Science1972-2000 (NORC-GSS) national data. Qualitative data consisted of primary focus group research. Eight hypotheses and six research questions guided this study.Three major endogenous variables (e.g. religiosity, political consciousness, and progressive political action) and two exogenous variables (e.g., age, occupation) were tested in this study. All hypotheses were measured at the .05 alpha level. The Hegelian Dialectic Method was confirmed by focus group summary analysis. ..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]