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How do voters choose their candidates?
- Psychologically:
- Party identification
- Some people vote Dem every year
- Some people vote Rep every year
- Some people say they're Independent but are on party lines
- Perception of the candidate
- Hate/love a candidate; actually turn out because to vote for
or sometimes against.
- Issue Preference (most rational choice, less common)
- Esp. in this election, perceptions can override voters who
usually vote this way when the candidate is polarizing
- Works best for very ideologically focused candidates.
V.O. Key on why voters vote how they do
- Victory is "Voice of the people is an echo"
- Voters say/represent what you want to hear.
- "Voters are not fools." They are "rationally and
responsibly...moved by concern about central and relevant
questions."
- Argues that, in the US at least, *everyone* is an issue preference
voter.
But, for ex., the Exit Polls in 2004 actually had Terrorism/Iraq as a
swing issue between Bush and Kerry.
This is an obviously irrational central issue, because those that ranked
lower, healthcare, education, taxes, affect far more people.
- Because elections are so expensive, often electability is more
important than fitness.
- Does high turnout really make a healthy democracy?
- Well, democracies are sometimes made more healthy by intangible
freedoms like of the press, speech, assembly.
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