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book: Who Votes Now?
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Who Votes Now?

Demographics, Issues, Inequality, and Turnout in the United States
  • and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2013

About this book

Who Votes Now? compares the demographic characteristics and political views of voters and nonvoters in American presidential elections since 1972 and examines how electoral reforms and the choices offered by candidates influence voter turnout. Drawing on a wealth of data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and the American National Election Studies, Jan Leighley and Jonathan Nagler demonstrate that the rich have consistently voted more than the poor for the past four decades, and that voters are substantially more conservative in their economic views than nonvoters. They find that women are now more likely to vote than men, that the gap in voting rates between blacks and whites has largely disappeared, and that older Americans continue to vote more than younger Americans. Leighley and Nagler also show how electoral reforms such as Election Day voter registration and absentee voting have boosted voter turnout, and how turnout would also rise if parties offered more distinct choices.


Providing the most systematic analysis available of modern voter turnout, Who Votes Now? reveals that persistent class bias in turnout has enduring political consequences, and that it really does matter who votes and who doesn't.

Author / Editor information

Jan E. Leighley is professor of political science at American University. She is the author of Strength in Numbers?: The Political Mobilization of Racial and Ethnic Minorities (Princeton) and Mass Media and Politics: A Social Science Perspective. Jonathan Nagler is professor of politics at New York University. He is an inaugural fellow of the Society for Political Methodology.

Reviews

"Who Votes Now? is a must-read for students of voting behaviour."---Steffen Zittlau, Political Studies Review --- "Who Votes Now? provides a fresh and valuable look at questions basic to the functioning of a democratic society."---Dan Balz, Washington Post

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    vii
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    List of Figures

    xi
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    List of Tables

    xiii
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    Preface

    xv
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    Acknowledgments

    xix
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    One. Introduction

    1
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    Two. Demographics of Turnout

    16
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    Three. Theoretical Framework and Models

    52
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    Four. The Legal Context of Turnout

    90
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    Five. Policy Choices and Turnout

    121
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    Six. On the Representativeness of Voters

    154
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    Seven. Conclusion

    182
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    References

    189
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    Index

    201
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
June 16, 2015
eBook ISBN:
9781400848621
Edition:
Course Book
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400848621
eBook ISBN: 9781400848621
Keywords for this book
Income; Voter turnout; Voting; Percentage point; Early voting; Family income; Of Education; Economic inequality; Estimation; Electoral reform in the United States; Electoral reform; Ideology; The American Voter; Probability; Population proportion; Ordinary least squares; Demography; Current population survey (US); Likelihood-ratio test; Compulsory voting; Sampling bias; Women in government; Sampling error; Tax cut; Ballot; Race and ethnicity in the United States Census; Probit model; National Annenberg Election Survey; Cross-sectional data; Dummy variable (statistics); Michigan Model; Policy; Citizens (Spanish political party); Instant-runoff voting; Shrinkage estimator; Ceteris paribus; George McGovern; Polling place; Unemployment; Voter registration; Exit poll; Suffrage; Logistic regression; Socioeconomic status; Household income in the United States; Private school; Absentee ballot; Utility; Political climate; Tax break; Recession; Representative democracy; One Unit; Income distribution; Percentage; Political campaign; Common good; Constitutional amendment; Elite; Inference; Standard of living; Economic Life; Calculation; Poor person; Confidence interval; Logit; Standard deviation; Voting behavior; Opposition to immigration; Cross-sectional study
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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