Influences on Voters

Influences on Voters

Personal Background Background includes such things as

upbringing, family, age, occupation, income level and even general outlook on life.

Age – Older voters have different needs than younger voters, and middle age voters have even a different view.

Occupation- White collar professionals have different needs and wants from gov’t than lower level blue collar workers.

Other influences are education, religion, racial or ethnic background. – Education – The higher your level of

education the more likely you are to vote.– Religion – Your belief system helps

determine which candidate you will choose.

– Race –Minorities vote less than the majority.

Individuals do not always vote the way their backgrounds might lead us to expect them to.

Cross-pressured Voter Someone who is caught between

conflicting elements in his own life. Example –

– Catholics tend to vote Democrat– Wealthy business executives traditionally

vote Republican– What if you are both on these? Put on

top of that that your friends are pushing you to vote for the Green party to help the environment.

For this voter, the campaign issues and personalities of the candidates will come into play in making a choice.

Effect of Political Parties

Party Loyalty plays and important party in who voters choose.

Loyal party members will choose their party’s candidate no matter what

Weak party members will lean toward their party’s candidate but will vote outside the party if they feel the other candidate is better.

Independent Voters These are people that do not link

themselves to any party. They vote the issues. The number of independent voters

has increased over the past few years. As the number continues to increase

the influence of political parties on elections will lessen.

Issues

Today’s voters are better informed of the issues than ever before.– Television reaches almost every

household.– Voters are better educated than in the

past.– Current issues have a greater impact on

the lives of individual voters than ever before in our history. Examples; taxes, education, war, social

security, environment, gun rights, abortion, immigration

Candidate’s Image Americans want a president they can

trust. The person must have past

experience. Sometimes the personal image a

candidate puts out can influence the voters.– Example: many women voted for JFK

because he was handsome and his wife was stylish.

If the party in power has done a good job, the people will transfer that image to anyone in that party running for an office.

A candidate must be able to portray the image that he has the qualities voters expect.

Propaganda The using of ideas information, or

rumors to influence opinion. Propaganda is not necessarily lying or

deception, though this is the image it has.

Propaganda was first used by advertisers to sell products Later political campaigns picked up the idea.

Propaganda Techniques - pg 496

Technique How To Recognize ItLabeling Name calling, identifying a candidate with a term

such as un-American

Spin Interpreting a political event or statement from a particular point of view

Card Stacking Giving only one side of the facts to support a candidate’s position

Transfer Associating a patriotic symbol with a candidatePlain Folks Identifying the candidate as “just one of the

common people”

Testimonial A celebrity endorses a candidateBandwagon Urging voters to support a candidate because

everyone else is

Why People Don’t Vote Political apathy-indifference Unable to get to polls Lower level of gov’t being elected --

the lower the voter turnout Elections with little of no media

attention have low voter turnout Barriers to voting- residency,

problems getting registered People are relatively satisfied with

gov’t and its policies