Influences on Voters
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Transcript of 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