"In March 1960, businessmen and social scientists met to examine research on public voting behavior which has implications for political activity by businessmen. This ia a summary report of their meeting [sponsored by the Foundation for Research on Human Behavior and written by Donald E. Stokes]" ; Bibliography: p. [29] ; Mode of access: Internet.
Voting turnout tends to be a joint household activity, with the members either voting or staying home as a unit. The amount of joint action greatly exceeds the f's which would occur if married men & women acted independently. Age & SC correlate with the family's collective behavior in the same way as they have long been known to correlate with the individual's turnout. When family consensus develops, it may result partly from the group's strong reinforcement of the individual's corresponding intentions & motivations; or agreement may result partly from the group inducing the individual to abandon contradictory intentions & predispositions. However, complete agreement in voting participation does not develop, because of cases of nonvoting wives. Generally the wives are more changeable than their husbands during the campaign, & also they are more changeable between elections. The data was gathered by interviews with voters during presidential & mid-term elections in the US. IPSA.
Past voting turnout studies almost always have been static analyses. Usually they have described the relationship between participation rates and the demographic attributes, attitudes, and social experiences of members of the electorate. Since each such study ordinarily is based on a single cross-sectional survey or on statistics referring to the Election Day period alone, both turnout and its determinants are derived at the same point of time, only simultaneous correlations are possible, and the analyst cannot show how turnout is affected by temporally prior conditions.The development of multi-wave panel interviews in modern social research permits the study of attitude change, decision-making, and action over time. By re-interviewing the same respondents at intervals, political sociologists already have discovered much about how voters decide their candidate choices during the course of an election campaign. A panel design permits such process analysis not only of candidate preference but also of turnout and non-voting.
Sociol'al studies as well as PO polls have consistently demonstrated a relationship between various indices of SE class position (occup, income & educ) on the one hand & att's toward Negroes & desegregation on the other. The nature of the relationship has tended to be, within limits, inverse. The study was undertaken to determine if the inverse relationship would be found as well in affirmative voting on segregationist referenda. An ecological survey by voting precincts was made of 15 southern communities in 6 states employing data about SE class, It had been predicted that an inverse relationship would exist between SE class & affirmative voting on segregationist referenda. The evidence taken as a whole, was inconsistent & even contradictory. The study raised the questions as to whether attitude studies are reliable indices of racial & segregationist sentiment & whether variables other than SE class & segregationist sentiment may not play the crucial role in voting on the referenda. AA.