Table of Contents 1 Value of Voting 2 Mobilization 3 Voting Trends 4 Nominations 5 Caucuses 6 Primary Elections 7 Gerrymandering 8 Member Resources 9 Campaign Funds Lecture Notes 1 Value of Voting A Free fair open elections are a hallmark of democracy B Turnout much higher recently despite gradual tendancy to drop i Basing data on Voting Eligible Population VEP shows that turnout has not dropped as significantly as a trend but still dropping C Civic Duty psychological benefit of voting largest motivator for voting D Voter ID deabte discrimination vs fraud i Registration time etc adds to cost decreases turnout A Party efforts tend to increase voter turnout weaker mobilization efforts lead to lower 2 Mobilization turnout 3 Voting Trends A More educated individuals have lower costs to voting and vote more 4 Nomination process is based on reforms of mid 1900s A Superdelegates now exist unlike Delegates in that they usually already have office and allow party some control over nomination process i Superdelegates are not pledged to a certain candidate and can nominate multiple they lack obligations 5 Caucuses restrict participtation A Caucuses elicit participation from highly partisan people B Lower participation partially due to cost 3 4 hours required of voters C Caucuses ruin notion of secret ballet your vote is disclosed A Favor extremist candidates because more fervid voters vote at primaries 7 Gerrrymandering attempt to establish political advantage in manipulating district boundaries 6 Primary elections 8 Member Resources 9 Campaign Funds A Members have staff to tell them information such as where they are succeeding and failing A Media influence has increased need for increased campaign spending i PACs Super Pacs Interest groups etc exert influence on campaign spending by contributing or lobbying ii Interest groups get influence and expect support later from politicians iii Interest groups usually back the incumbent because they expect the incumbent to win they don t want to waste money B Challengers that beat incumbents tends to heavily outspend the incumbent i Snowball effect of spending given that more money more likely to win ii Challengers need money more so money helps them more because challengers are less likely to be known and have less exposure iii Senators have a harder time winning as incumbents because they can t exploit gerrymandering 10 Tenure has increased over time A The average amount of terms is now 5 terms in office 11 Redistricting vs reapportionment A Redistricting changing districts i There are 435 seats in the house no matter what 12 Representative Behavior B Reapportionment changing seats allotted based on population in relation to other states A Pork term used for district service effort by congress to get fudning for their own district B Earmark legislation that allocates some funds for a specific project often controversial and irrelevant usage of tax money i Relates to pork congressman use earmarks to get money for their own district ii Some argue that transparency for earmarks would lead to more earmarks more selfish legislation since the public would push for more in their district
View Full Document
Unlocking...