Digital Commons Network^™

When Ballots Are Blank: Write-In’S Serving Local Government And The Implications For A Healthy And Vibrant Democracy, Thomas J. Ruter

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Our democracy depends on having a supply of candidates running for elected office, but in some instances, no one wants to run. This phenomenological study asks what the effects on a healthy and vibrant democracy are if ballots are blank and the seat is filled through write-in or appointment. Rooted in democratic theory, this study explores small, rural city elections where write-ins won election. Understudied, local governments are responsible for decisions affecting the lives of millions of people each day. Workforce scarcity, the alienation of young Americans from politics, government bashing, nasty campaigns, threats of physical harm, and other barriers …

Incivility In 2022 Senatorial Elections, Mark Meyer

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This honors capstone project will examine the effect of social media, specifically Twitter, on U.S. senate elections in 2022. It will track the tweets of personal and official campaign Twitter accounts from the end of the primary until election night in two “Toss Up” or highly contested seats in the 2022 senate elections. This project will examine the winner of the Republican and Democrat primaries only. All the tweets from the timeframe will be tracked and categorized by intention or use of the tweet. These categories will break down the tweet into what it was meant to do be it …

The Political Divergence Of Ohio And Michigan, Dominic D. Wells, David J. Jackson

The Journal of Economics and Politics

Ohio and Michigan are demographically similar states whose politics have diverged since 2016. This research aims to explain why these two Midwestern states have taken such different political paths in recent years. A comparative case study is used to examine a number of possible explanations. The results of this research show that institutional factors such as registration and voting laws, redistricting processes, and ballot measures have contributed to the political divergence of Ohio and Michigan. Further, data on policy preferences are compared to show that the differences between the states are not the result of different policy preferences among their …

Latino Voter Participation In The 2018 And 2022 Midterm Elections, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction

This study analyzes Latino voting participation, comparing the US midterm elections of the years 2018 and 2022.

Method

The study is a descriptive and comparative analysis using data from the 2022 Voting and Registration Data from the US Census Bureau.

Discussion

The study found that nationally, only 37.9% of eligible Latino voters took part in the 2022 midterms, compared to 40.4% in the 2018 midterms. Despite this decline in the percentage of registered voters casting ballots in 2022, the percentage of Latinos registered to vote rose from 53.7% in 2018 to 57.8% in 2022.

Vive La Différence?: Is There A Gender Gap In Campaign Strategy And Spending, And Does It Matter?, Paul S. Herrnson, Charles Hunt, Jaclyn J. Kettler

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Record numbers of women were elected into office in the US in recent years, and campaign financing may have contributed to their successes. This raises two questions: Is there a gender gap in campaign strategy and spending? And if there is, does it have an impact on election outcomes? Using a new dataset that includes itemized campaign expenditures for the almost 3,500 candidates who contested a House election between 2012 and 2020, we report little evidence of a gender gap in candidates’ campaign spending, but we find some differences in the effects of communications spending on women’s and men’s electoral …

Demographic Structure And Voting Behaviour During Democratization: Evidence From Malaysia's 2022 Election, Sebastian Carl Dettman, Thomas B. Pepinsky

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Malaysia’s fifteenth general election (GE15) was a milestone in the country’s democratization process, with new parties and political movements competing with established political coalitions. In this paper, we investigate how Malaysia’s cleavage structure—a central feature of Malaysia’s prior authoritarian regime—shapes electoral competition in a newly competitive political environment. We find that the “race paradigm” (Milner, Embong, and Tham 2014) remains central to explaining party strategy and coalition behavior in GE15, but that more democratic competition has increased the salience of regional differences—both between peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia, and within peninsular Malaysia itself. Our analysis reveals the structural foundations of …

Issue Salience And Ownership In The 2019 And 2021 Canadian Federal Elections, Maxime St-Jean

Reports

This report uses the 2019 and 2021 Canadian Election Study (CES) to explore how political issues and social cleavages are perceived by the electorate in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. We focus more specifically on three dimensions: first, what issues were most important in electors’ minds (which we refer to as issue salience); second, which parties were seen as best able to handle various issues (which we refer to as issue ownership by parties); and finally, the social bases of party perceptions.

Direct Election, Bureaucratic Appointment, And Local Government Responsiveness In Taiwan, Sara A. Newland

Government: Faculty Publications

Does local democracy induce better service to citizens? While elected officials can be punished at the ballot box if they fail to address citizens’ needs, appointed bureaucrats may have policy knowledge that enables them to better serve citizens. Employing a multimethod design, this paper uses variation in local political institutions in Taiwan to assess the relative merits of direct election and bureaucratic appointment for local government responsiveness. While democratic institutions are often thought to induce responsiveness, I find that in Taiwan, with its historically strong bureaucracy and relatively new democratic institutions, the picture is somewhat more complicated. Elected and appointed …

Local Candidate Roots And Electoral Advantages In Us State Legislatures, Charles Russell Hunt, Stella Rouse

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A growing literature has revealed a notable electoral advantage for congressional and gubernatorial candidates with deep local roots in their home districts or states. However, there is a dearth of research on the presence and impact of local roots in state legislative races. In this paper, we close that gap by demonstrating the consistent and significant electoral impacts that state legislators’ local roots have on their reelection efforts. We use data capturing a representative cross-section of state legislative incumbents (N = ~5,000) and calculate a novel index measuring the depth of their local roots modeled after Hunt’s (2022, Home …

New Americans And The New Right: Hispanic Voting Trends In The Trump Era Of Politics, Emmanuel Keppel

Political Science Honors Projects

In 2020, Donald Trump lost re-election to Joe Biden by around 4.5% nationally. Despite losing in his re-election bid, Trump was able to make surprising inroads with Hispanic voters, reaching the highest Republican totals with Hispanic voters in decades. This trend held true across nearly every Hispanic neighborhood in the country. From large Hispanic-majority cities such as Miami to isolated pockets of Hispanic voters in New England, there was a consistent rightward trend. Moreover, this trend largely continued into 2022, with most Republican candidates in the midterm elections matching Trump’s numbers. This paper will take an in depth look at …

The Greek Advantage: Implications Of Greek Affiliation On Student Government At The University Of Mississippi, Lila Osman

Honors Theses

Greek life is a prominent group at the University of Mississippi, especially when it comes to membership in the Associated Student Body (ASB). ASB is the student governing body at the University so it is important to analyze its membership to understand how reflective it is of the entire university campus it represents. This research answers the question: “How and to what extent does Greek affiliation affect candidates for student government at the University of Mississippi?” Through two mixed methods surveys, one sent to members elected to ASB in the spring 2022 election cycle and the other to the general …

C-Dem 2023 Partners' Meeting Agenda May 5, Consortium On Electoral Democracy

Meeting Notes

No abstract provided.

C-Dem 2023 Partners' Meeting Notes, Consortium On Electoral Democracy

Meeting Notes

No abstract provided.

C-Dem 2023 Partners' Meeting May 5 Powerpoint Presentation, Consortium On Electoral Democracy

Meeting Notes

No abstract provided.

Does Electoral Proximity Influence Commitment To International Human Rights Law?, Nolan Ragland

Baker Scholar Projects

The core international human rights treaties from the United Nations have been signed and ratified by varying groups of states, and much of previous research has been dominated by a desire to explain ratification of international human rights law (IHRL) through the democratic lock-in effect and states’ economic and political ties to one another. In this paper, I seek to understand when states are ratifying IHRL, testing whether the presence of elections influences commitment to three of the nine core international human rights treaties: the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of …

Does Electoral Proximity Influence Commitment To International Human Rights Law?, Nolan A. Ragland

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Categorizing Written Responses With A Dictionary Approach, Maxime St-Jean

Reports

No abstract provided.

Ideology And The Incumbency Advantage, Gabe Degraeve

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Incumbents win reelection at a staggering rate (upwards of 75%) the causes of this are well understood and examined. The numerous material benefits (access to a larger staff, fundraising ability, name recognition, etc.) paired with the psychological benefits (scare-off effect, lack of high-quality candidate, etc.) make it very hard for a potential challenger to win in an election against an incumbent. There however has been a decrease in the incumbency advantage over the past several election cycles. Since both the material and psychological benefits are still present, another factor is likely contributing to this decrease. Ideology has become …

Political Participation Among Canadians: Are Young People Disengaging? Public Report (8) 2023-03-30, Maxime St-Jean

Reports

No abstract provided.

The Right To Rebel And The Insurrection At The Capitol: What Causes Support For The Events Of January 6th, Tanner Butler

Undergraduate Research Journal

On January 6th, there was a riot at the Capitol of the United States where protestors attempted to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election. While attempting this, the protestors took over the halls of Congress. This study will be looking at what is causing people to support this political violence. The focus will be to see if people's beliefs that the protestors were within the right to rebel that John Locke lays out in his social contract theory are important for explaining the support for the riot. Survey data provided the basis for statistical analysis that demonstrated a strong connection between …

C-Dem Advisory Council Meeting February 15, 2023, C-Dem Research Project

Meeting Notes

No abstract provided.

La Liberté D'Expression Et Les Propos Haineux: Les Attitudes Des Canadiennes Et Canadiens, Antoine Thériault

Reports

No abstract provided.

C-Dem 2023 Annual Report, Consortium On Electoral Democracy

Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Government In Arkansas, 11th Edition, Douglas L. Reed, Margaret M. Reed

Books and Monographs

The signature publication of the League of Women Voters of Arkansas, Government in Arkansas explains the structure and functions of Arkansas government. Among its 10 chapters are overviews of Arkansas’ constitution, branches of government, institutions of political influence, elections, and noteworthy issues. A brief comparative analysis of Arkansas and other states concludes each chapter. Background information on the state’s political history and women’s suffrage movement is also provided.

Elections And Post Traumatic Stress: Evidence From The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, Timothy Fraser, Costas Panagopoulos, Kevin Smith

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

The 2020 U.S. presidential election saw rising political tensions among ordinary voters and political elites, with fears of election violence culminating in the January 6th riot. We hypothesized that the 2020 election might have been traumatic for some voters, producing measurable symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We also hypothesized that negative sentiment towards the opposing party correlates with PTSD. We measured PTSD with a modified PCL-5, a validated PTSD screener, for 573 individuals from a nationally representative YouGov sample. We modeled the association between affective polarization and PTSD, controlling for political, demographic, and psychological traits. We estimate that 12.5% …

What The Hell Is Wrong With America? The Truth About Racism And Justice For All, James E. Wright Ii, Stephanie Dolamore, Rajade M. Berry-James

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Realignment Theory: Transformation In Suburban And Rural America From 2008 To 2020, Nathaniel Hutton

Honors Theses

My thesis topic evaluates Democratic and Republican electoral performance in suburban and rural areas through the lens of realignment theory. Aided by GIS maps, my analysis utilizes election data from the 2008 and 2020 presidential elections. I went about this by first reviewing relevant literature on realignment theory, beginning with its genesis in by V.O. Key in 1955. I then began reviewing literature on rural and suburban voting patterns, as well as research on geographic influences on electoral coalitions. My original research is thus aimed at bridging the gap between three distinct fields of political science literature: geographic sorting/polarization and …

Agenda - Survey Design Under Constraints: Best Practices, Laura Stephenson

Workshop: Survey Design Under Constraints

No abstract provided.

Agenda - Survey Design Under Constraints: Best Practices, Laura Stephenson

Workshop: Survey Design Under Constraints

No abstract provided.

C-Dem 2022 Annual Forum Program, Laura Stephenson, Allison Harell

C-Dem Forum 2022

No abstract provided.