APS Day 4 AgendaAPS Day 4 AgendaGoal – to understand that voting is a right people do not always

exercise, but that those who do vote for many reasons do to many demographic factors, including political party affiliation

• Review participation• Review Gold pages 1,2 and 6 Gold pages 1,2 and 6 re voting and non-voting• Who votes for whom?

– Analyzing data in a chart Voting by Groups – review data• Is there a difference in the way men and women have

voted in the last 28 years?• Does race play a role in voting patterns?• Does age, education or religion affect voting patterns?

• Review “Who counts – Election Reform” video• Parties – complete yellow packet pages – 19 – 20yellow packet pages – 19 – 20• Library – research topic – use organizer to identify a problem Library – research topic – use organizer to identify a problem

related to your topic, who is affected, how they are affected related to your topic, who is affected, how they are affected and potential solutions that have been tried.and potential solutions that have been tried.

Democracy and Political Participation (Cont’d)

• Political participation consists of the actions of private citizens seeking to influence or support government and politics. Most practical observers contend that people can govern indirectly, through their elected representatives.

Democracy and Political Participation

• Conventional participation consists of relatively routine behavior that uses the established institutions of representative government, especially campaigning for candidates and voting in elections.

Conventional Participation

• The two categories of conventional participation are:

– Actions that show support for government policies.

– Those actions that try to change or influence policies.

Democracy and Political Participation (Cont’d)

• Unconventional participation includes relatively uncommon behavior that challenges or defies established institutions or the dominant culture (and thus is personally stressful to participants and their opponents).

Unconventional Participation

• Direct action involves assembling crowds to confront businesses and local governments to demand a hearing.

– Most commonly appeals to people who distrust the political system and have a strong sense of political efficacy.

Figure 7.1: What Americans Think Is Unconventional

Political Behavior

CWW 7.1: Popular Participation in Politics

      The first step in politics is to get into office – to get elected. The best chance of getting elected is to belong to one of the two major parties. The history of the United States has primarily been a two party system in which for each congressional, senate and presidential race, there are usually two main choices, a Republican or a Democrat. Therefore, the parties effectively control who our choices are for national office. This is especially true for the presidency. There are a few notable exceptions, like the independent Senators from Connecticut and Vermont.

- 1) Thus, to win a national election, a candidate needs first to win the nomination of the party for that office based on the VOTESVOTES of party affiliated voters.voters.

2) Then the party will pit its nominee against the nominee from the other party in the general election to determine who will take office based on the VOTESVOTES of all voters voters who decide to vote.

Gold p 1Gold p 1

1 – Property-owning white men, often with religious qualification were the only citizens with suffrage.

2 – over time, the states voluntarily dropped religious and property qualifications.

3 – The right to vote shall not be abridged on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude – 15th Amendment

4 – right to vote shall not be abridged on account of sex - 19th Amend

5 – 23rd amendment gave electoral college suffrage to DC residents, 24th ended the poll tax, Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts ended literacy tests and discrimination in voter registration.

6 – 18 years old and older are guaranteed right to vote 26th amendment

7 – to vote 8 – religious 9 – property 10- tax 11 –age 12 – federal

13 – C 14 – b 15 – a 16 - e

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1 – According to the Constitution, there is nothing that explicitly denies aliens the right to vote, but the 15th prohibits citizens from being denied the right to vote.

2 - but no state allows aliens the right to vote.

3 – States have adopted residency requirements to keep out voters who have been imported to “fix” elections, and to help to guarantee that voters have time to become familiar with local issues.

4 – Due to the Voting Rights Act extension of 1970 and the USSC case of Dunn v Blumstein, the longest residency requirement is 30 days before the election.

5 – the oldest minimum age is 18, but some areas have lowered to voting age for certain elections.

6 – Voters usually need to provide age, name, proof of residency and length of residency. There is discussion of photo ID like in Georgia.

7 – Some oppose registration because it is an obstacle to voting, but supporters like registration to prevent voter fraud

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7 – Some oppose registration because it is an obstacle to voting, but supporters like registration to prevent voter fraud

8 – Literacy test were abolished because they were unfair and discriminatory.

9 – The poll tax was used to prevent the poor, who were disproportionately black, from voting

10 – some people today are regularly barred from voting due to felony convictions, age under 18 and mental institution residency.

11. Literacy is the ability to read.

12. Grandfather clauses were used to help whites get exemptions from literacy tests and poll taxes.

13. A poll tax is the sum of money that one had to pay to vote.

14. Registration is the procedure for voter identification.

15. Residency requirements state that a person must have lived within the State for a minimum period of time before voting

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Circumstantial Reasons for non-voting

1. Off-year elections have low voter turnout, like this past year’s primary and referendum on Act 1

2. Some voters who vote in presidential elections don’t vote for Congress

3. Ballot Fatigue – occurs when people get tired of voting so frequently, in some cases every year, twice a year and often

4. In primaries or for offices for which they have no knowledge of the job or the candidates

Main reasons for non-voting

5. Cannot vote – felons, disabled, traveling, mental institution, aliens

6. Some discrimination still occurs like in Ohio and Florida in 2004

7. Feeling of inefficacy - Some people do not think their votes count

8. There are cumbersome election procedures – like finding precinct

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Main reasons for non-voting

5. Cannot vote – felons, disabled, traveling, mental institution, aliens

6. Some discrimination still occurs like in Ohio and Florida in 2004

7. Feeling of inefficacy - Some people do not think their votes count

8. There are cumbersome election procedures – like finding precinct

9. Bad weather

10.Lack of interest – “I have better things to do” “Politics is boring!!”

11.Time zone fallout

12.Difficult, cumbersome registration requirements

Certain people are more likely to vote than others

13.Better educated – the greater the level of education, the greater the likelihood of voting – college degree holders are twice as likely to vote as those without high school diploma. Seniors and suburbanites are more likely to vote

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Certain people are more likely to vote than others

13.Better educated – the greater the level of education, the greater the likelihood of voting – college degree holders are twice as likely to vote as those without high school diploma. Seniors and suburbanites are more likely to vote

14.Northerners are 5 to 10 percentage points more likely to vote than southerners

15.People with more money are more likely to vote than the working class or poor – in 2004 36.5 of the poorest reported to have voted while 78.5% of the richest reported to have voted.

16.Those with party affiliation tend to vote more than independents and those who live in districts where the competition is greatest between the two parties.

17.Those who believe their votes count vote more than those who don’t believe their votes count

Parties and What They DoFunction Description

Nominating Function

This is the activity that most clearly sets political parties apart from other political groups. Only parties run people for office.

Informer stimulator function

Parties hare this function with the news media and interest groups. They inform the public about issues and try to stimulate debate on the issues

“Seal of Approval” Function

Parties put their label on a candidate, telling the public that “this guy is good.” Once its candidates are elected, the party must prod them to perform well or it may suffer with them in the next election.

Governmental Function

Party connection help the executive and legislative branches of government to cooperate with one another. And to help the legislature pass legislation

“Watch dog” function

The party out of power criticizes the party that controls the government and urges voters to “throw the bums out.”

Parties and What They Do

11. All political parties can be defined as groups of persons who join together because they want to gain control of the government through winning elections.

12. Most political parties are formed in order to bring about the adoption of certain public policies and programs.

13. In the US, the major parties are election-oriented rather than ideological, single issue or principle-oriented.

14. Coalitions are unions of people with diverse interests.

15. The term ‘The loyal opposition” is given to the party out of power because of its important role in scrutinizing the activities of public officials.

Minor Parties

Ideological parties – based on a particular set of beliefs and having a comprehensive view of social, economic, and political matters. Exemplified by Communist Party, Socialist Party, Libertarian Party

Single – issue parties – Holds strong position on one or a very few issues like the Green Party, Right to Life Party, American Tax-Payers Party

Splinter parties – parties created from a small group of disaffected major party members

- Bull Moose Party was Teddy Roosevelt’s moderate Republican, anti-monopoly pro-environment party

- State’s Rights Democrats – (Dixiecrats) splintered from the national Dems over segregation in 1948

– Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was a part of the liberal Democrats in 1964 made up exclusively of blacks who were denied a seat at the segregationist Democratic table

Tommy Thompson is running for the U.S. House of Representatives seat from the 5th Congressional District of New York. Tommy has been a local businessman for the last 25 years. He has clearly expressed his positions on two major pieces of legislation that his opponent, the incumbent congressperson, is noted for. On a transportation bill, the incumbent voted against a bill that would have two new bridges to be built in the 5th District. One bridge was to be built from the warehouse section of the city to the docks, making transportation easier and cheaper for businesses. The second bridge was to be built between a hotel complex and the airport. To pay for the bridges, the bill would have cut funding to the local School Lunch program and raised taxes on middle class families by increasing the federal tax on cable television. The bridge construction bill did not pass. Tommy would have voted for it and has campaigned on that issue.

The second bill on which he has campaigned is the Pregnancy and Infancy Healthcare Act, for which the incumbent lobbied heavily for and voted in favor of. This bill requires all healthcare insurance companies to pay for at least 5 doctors visits for a pregnant woman within one month of her delivery date, 3 days stay in the hospital after birth for both mother and baby, and all baby doctors visits for the first year, without co-pay and without the insurance company raising rates or decreasing pay to doctors. The bill also will not provide any tax relief or benefits to the insurance companies. Tommy is completely opposed to this bill, and will introduce legislation to repeal it.

 The statistical breakdown of the voters living in the 5th district is shown in the following chart:

 

% of Voters

Number of Voters

% of Voters

Number of Voters

Gender Age

Male 48% 24,000 18-24 15% 7,500

Female 52% 26,000 25-39 26% 13,000

40-55 36% 18,000

Occupation 55-over 23% 11,500

Professional 30% 15,000 Income

Industrial worker 20% 10,000 0-20,000 10% 5,000

Business owner 10% 5,000 21,000-40,000 30% 15,000

Services(including homemaker

35% 17,500 41,000-80,000 30% 15,000

Unemployed 5% 2,500 81,000-150,000 20% 10,000

151,00--over 10% 5,000