1) In Who Votes Now?, what do Leighley and Nagler argue are the most significant determinants of an individual’s voting or nonvoting? Income and educationSecondary factors: age, race, marital status, gender

2) What groups are more and less likely to vote than others?Better educated > less soWealthy > poorWhite > black until recently, now black > whiteWhite and black > HispanicOlder > youngerMen > women until 1984, now women > menMarried > single

3) How have the disparities among these groups changed over the time period that Leighley and Nagler examine?

Income gap has stayed the sameWhite/black disparity has decreased and then reversedGender disparity has reversedEducation gap has stayed the sameAge has fluctuatedMarital status has stayed the same

4) What have been the effects of legal changes to procedures such as voter registration,

Motor Voter increased registration but not votingElection Day registration HAS increased turnout

absentee voting, No-excuse absentee voting has increased turnout but

not as much as Election Day registrationand early voting?

Results are mixed – the statistical correlation is actually negative

5) To what extent is the voting population demographically representative – or not – of the population as a whole,

Not. Whiter, older, wealthier, better educated, more likely to be married

6) and what are the policy consequences of this?Leighley and Nagler disagree with the conventional wisdom

(Wolfinger and Rosenstone, and other authors, believe there’s no significant difference in the policy preferences of voters vs. nonvoters)

Candidates and officials pay attention to the policy preferences of those who vote, as opposed to the entire population

Voters are more conservative than nonvoters on issues of economic redistribution, but nonvoters are more

conservative on social issuesPolicies don’t reflect the preferences of the entire

population.

“Controlling for…”Controlling for something means keeping it

constant while examining the effects of other factorsExample: “Controlling for education”

You may conclude that college-educated African Americans are more likely to vote than college-

educated whites – this allows you to examine the impact of race independent of education (because education is equal for these two groups)But if the percentage of African Americans who are college-educated is lower than the percentage of whites who are college-educated, you can’t conclude from this that the percentage of African American turnout in general is higher than the percentage of white turnout in general.

M. Margaret Conway, Political Participation in the United States

Reasons why education increases likelihood of voting: More knowledge of how the system works Greater awareness of consequences of

government actions Greater likelihood of social pressure to

participate (encouraged by parents) Higher skill level for participation Greater development of cognitive skills

(understanding and analysis of events) Greater level of satisfaction with your

environment

M. Margaret Conway, Political Participation in the United States

Education increases your likelihood of voting because it makes you more likely to: Pay attention to events Have opinions Be interested and willing to participate Discuss politics with others Have social interactions Have greater social and political tolerance Perceive government as responsive to your

interests