Whose Voice Counts? Uncovering Municipal Issue Publics
I recently interviewed a man I’ll call Henry. Henry cares deeply about road safety after his son died in a car accident. He sits on three local committees dedicated to improving road safety in his community, and road safety informs how Henry participates in politics and who he votes for. But is Henry unique? Are other citizens highly informed and engaged on one (or more) specific policy issues?
Crime, Policing, and Voter Turnout
Politicians love to talk about crime in their election campaigns. The conventional wisdom is that tough-on-crime solutions will bring out the vote. Chicago’s recent mayoral elections showed this perfectly, when several candidates promised to reduce crime through increased policing. Yet researchers disagree about how crime and policing are connected to voter turnout. We analyze data from Chicago’s last two mayoral elections to clarify.
Voting Can Be Hard, Information Helps
How do voters make decisions about which candidates to support? This isn’t just a question we study as political scientists – it’s a question we confront as voters as well. In 2016, one of us had to vote for a presidential nominee by picking convention delegates on a ballot that did not clearly indicate which presidential candidate each delegate supported. In 2017, another one of us was asked to select 5 names from a list of 13 candidates for town board on a ballot with no additional information about the candidates – not even their party affiliations. In contrast, in both of those years, the one of us living in California chose among candidates – in both partisan and non-partisan races – on ballots including not just names but also “ballot designations” indicating candidate occupations and past experience in the office.