Browsing by Subject "voting"

Now showing 1 - 12 of 12
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    Analysis of Dimension Expansion in Spatial Modeling of American Voter Behavior
    (2018-05) Parrott, Zachary; McIver, John; Jessee, Stephen
    Understanding voter behavior has the potential to give us key insights and reflections on election outcomes and even serves useful in managing campaigns and predicting election outcomes. Yet political scientists have yet to create an accurate model of voting behavior. In fact, the most popular theories assert that there isn’t much political sophistication to understand or interpret. Spatial Theory however, asserts that there is political sophistication but in the form of an underlying ideological framework, or an Ideology. Spatial Theory seeks to understand and predict voter behavior by relying on ideological similarities between candidates and voters. But spatial theory isn’t perfect either. Spatial models may be one of the most predictive models of voter behavior, but it is undeniably missing out on some predictive feature that affects voting behavior. The goal of this research is to attempt to find these missing features and to see if they can be adjusted for. If these features exists and can be accurately adjusted for, they may complete the model. The most obvious of these potential features are common demographical features that have been known and empirically shown to have different voting behaviors as populations. I hypothesize that these demographic features affect a voter’s world view and value systems. I believe that if I adjust for the effects of these features in my measurement of ideology, my model will get closer to more accurately reflecting voter behavior.
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    Automatic Voter Registration: A Solution to America's Turnout Problem or a Way to Make Registration More Convenient?
    (2023-05) Cockerham, Kate
    Automatic voter registration (AVR) is the newest election reform to capture the United States’ interest, having been adopted by 22 states as of early 2023. It is lauded by supporters for moving the onus of voter registration from the individual to the government. Here, advocates argue that the policy could serve as a solution to America’s voter turnout problem. After exploring the history of voter registration in the United States, as well as its corresponding research, I present a methodology for analyzing the impact of AVR on voter registration rates, voter turnout rates amongst eligible citizens, and voter turnout rates amongst those who are registered to vote. Using Difference in Differences models, I find that only registration rates increase in a statistically significant manner post implementation of the policy. When testing for variations in the forms of AVR implementation, the front-end version, where an individual can decline registration at the point of interaction with a government agency, produces just over a one percentage point increase in voter turnout. This indicates that while the back-end version, where an individual is informed post-interaction that they may decline registration, may be the most “automatic” of automatic voter registration types, front-end better informs the citizens it registers of their status and might alter behavior.
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    Democracy Promotion Begins at Home
    (2018-11-06) Romanow, Nicholas
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    A History of the Electoral College, 1787 – Today
    (2020-12-11) Maedgen, Jack
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    The Importance of Voting in This Year’s Midterms
    (ORANGE Magazine, 2022-10-25) Maddali, Sandhya
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    Silencing the Future: The U.S. Voting Age
    (2018-10-24) Masucol, Ethan
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    Vote Through a Veil of Ignorance
    (2019-04-10) Jaffe, Ryan
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    Voting as a Positive Right: A Reply to Flanders
    (Alaska Law Review, 2011-06) Fishkin, Joseph
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    Voting in the Texas Legislature compared to the U.S. Congress
    (2012-04-02) Hung, Daniel
    What variables affect the way Texas State Representatives vote? Studies have shown that campaign contributions to members of the U.S. Congress do not necessarily affect the way they vote. This study examines whether this is also true for the Texas Legislature. I will look at the payday lender bill (HB2594, which will regulate the industry), where the payday lender industry has contributed more than $1 million dollars to Texas politicians and see if it affected the way Texas State Representatives voted. Then I will consider other variables such as the location of pay day lenders, and the ideology rating of State Representatives. These payday bills take place in the 82nd Texas Legislature, where the state representative is composed of 101 Republicans, and 49 Democrats.
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    Why Swing State Voting is Not (Usually) Effective Altruism
    (Salem Center, 2021-10-25) Brennan, Jason