American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

214 CHAPTER 7|ELECTIONS

Cues g ive people a low-eff ort way to cast a vote that, more likely than not, is con-

sistent with the voter’s true preference among candidates.^46 Studies have found

that citizens who use cues and are politically well informed are more likely to cast

a reasonable vote (one that’s consistent with their underlying policy preferences

relative to candidates’ positions), compared to those who use cues but are other-

wise relatively politically ignorant. In essence, information helps people to select

the right cue.^47

Consider the partisanship cue. Because Republican and Democratic candi-

dates usually hold diff erent positions on many important issues, a candidate’s

party affi liation tells a voter something about how the candidate is likely to behave

if elected. But the signal is not foolproof: in 2004 a Republican voter who was pro–

gay rights might have used a partisan cue to vote for George Bush because he was

the Republican nominee, even though more investigation would have revealed

that Bush’s position on gay rights was the opposite of her own. Even so, because

pa r tisa n cues a re so ea sy to employ, t hey a re a favorite voting strateg y in A merica n

elections.

All the strategies identifi ed above for making vote decisions are used to some

extent in every election. However, in normal elections, when congressional

re-election rates are high and the seat shift between the parties is small, voters

generally use cues that focus on the candidates themselves—such as incumbency,

partisanship, a personal connection to a candidate, or the candidate’s personal

characteristics or past performance. This behavior is consistent with the saying

that “all politics is local”: congressional elections are independent, local contests

in which a candidate’s chances of winning depend on what voters think of the

candidate in particular—not the president, Congress, or national issues. It also

explains why electoral coattails are typically very weak in American elections

and why so many Americans cast split tickets rather than straight tickets.

In the main, vote decisions in presidential and congressional elections are made

independently of each other.

Voting in Nationalized Elections

Nationalized elections are atypical congressional elections in which the re-election

rate is relatively low for one party’s House and Senate incumbents and national-

level issues exert more infl uence than usual on the House and Senate races. Such

elections generally occur when a large number of voters switch to using the anti-

party-in-power cue, which leads them to vote against candidates from the presi-

dent’s party. Typically, this shift happens when voters become highly concerned

about a national issue such as the state of the economy or an international confl ict.

In 2006 many voters disapproved of how the war in Iraq was being conducted.^48

And in 2010 many voters disapproved of economic conditions in general as well as

corporate bailouts, economic stimulus legislation, and health care reform.

National-level concerns such as these cause citizens to lower their evaluations

of the president and of Congress, so they use diff erent cues to guide their voting

decisions.^49 Many voters look for someone to blame, focusing on members of Con-

gress from the party in power. They then vote against these members, either as

a protest vote or because they want to put diff erent individuals in charge in the

hopes that conditions will improve.

In nationalized elections, re-election rates for members of Congress (the per-

centage of incumbents who successfully ran for re-election) are generally high, as

normal election A typical
congressional election in which
the reelection rate is high and the
infl uences on House and Senate
contests are largely local.

coattails The idea that a popular
president can generate additional
support for candidates affi liated
with his party. Coattails are weak
or nonexistent in most American
elections.

split ticket A ballot on which a
voter selects candidates from more
than one political party.

straight ticket A ballot on which
a voter selects candidates from only
one political party.