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Studies of ticket-splitting have been based on flaws of evidence and conception, whether using aggregate or survey data. A common basis for error has been the "two-office split- result" approach. Errors devolving from this approach, for example, assume that split congressional districts or split gubernatorial/ state legislative alignments are indeed based on ticket-splitting. Survey studies, with rare exception, suffer from the problem of voter recall, reliability of reported information, and the "missing GOP vote" explanation. Both aggregate and survey studies commonly either ignore the incomplete problem or understate it significantly. However, the high number of incomplete ballots suggests, along with other data, that ticket-splitting is not necessarily widespread or increasing. Approaches to remedy these problems are suggested.

Relationships between feelings of political competence & cumulative media use in 5 Western nations--the US, the UK, Germany, Italy, & Mexico--were examined. Data from an earlier study by G. A. Almond & S. Verba (THE CIVIC CULTURE: POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND DEMOCRACY IN FIVE NATIONS, Princeton, NJ: Princeton U Press, 1963) was reexamined relating media usage to 'political competence' & 'subjective competence'. The original data, 1,000 interviews from each country, were collected in 1959 & 1960. The current study devised a 'mass media index' as a gross measure of media used to follow public affairs. X2's were used as a measure for statistical significance & gamma was used as a uniform measure of association. Correlations on 25 points relating to subjective & political competence were measured for each country. Wide differentiation among the nations studied suggests that multivariate analysis is needed to establish whether media usage makes a unique contribution to feelings of political competence or acts as a surrogate for other variables. 1 Table. S. Lupton.