voting behaviour

Question 1

republican voter profile:

Answer 1

-higher class
-from the south, mid-west, rural areas
-male
-protestant, possibly evangelical
-white
-older

Question 2

democrat voter profile:

Answer 2

-lower class
-from the west or east coast, or urban areas
-female
-catholic or other religious minority
-african american, hispanic..
-younger

Question 3

short term factor that affects voting behaviour: economy

Answer 3

-no incumbent president since FDR has been re-elected with unemployment higher than 8%
-as the economy is a valance issue it is always important to voters

Question 4

short term factor that affects voting behaviour: events

Answer 4

-key events can change voting behaviour
-e.g. George W. Bush’s approval ratings went up massively after how he dealt with 9/11, despite major presidential failures and unpopularity

Question 5

short term factor that affects voting behaviour: ‘october surprises’

Answer 5

-seen to be a pattern of big things happening the month before the election, that can influence the outcome
-2016 FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails
-2012 Hurriane Sandy drew attention away from Romney and to Obama as Obama was the current president and dealt with it well

Question 6

short term factor that affects voting behaviour:

Question 7

party alignment of white voters:

Answer 7

-republican
-due to how Nixon’s southern strategy won over white southerners
-e.g. in 2008 90% of people who voted republican were white
-less extreme recently though

Question 8

party alignment of african-american voters:

Answer 8

-democrat
-in 2012 93% of then voted for Obama
-not just when there was a black candidate though - in 2020 87% of them voted for biden
-due to how the republicans target the ‘deep south’ and care less about issues of race

Question 9

party alignment of hispanic voters:

Answer 9

-democrat
-very diverse social group
-there’s an argument that they should vote republican due to their socially conservative views, but they mainly vote democrat because of the issue of illegal immigrants, with the majority of them believing they should give illegal immigrants the chance to apply for legal status
-66% of hispanics voted democrat in 2020

Question 10

party alignment of jewish voters:

Answer 10

-democrat
-one of the mostly clearly aligned groups
-they tend to support the democrats’ fiscal and social policies
-in 2012 69% of them supported obama

Question 11

party alignment of catholic voters:

Answer 11

-democrats
-JFK was catholic, and received over 80% support from catholic voters
-however the group has become less aligned due to arising social issues e.g. abortion
-nowadays the vote is fairly equal e.g. in 2012 Obama got 50% and Romney got 48%

Question 12

party alignment of protestant voters:

Answer 12

-evangelicals vote republican e.g. in 2012 79% of them voted republican
-mainline protestants vote democrat or republican e.g. in 2012 44% of them voted democrat and 54% voted republican

Question 13

party alignment by age: