Chronopolitics: What Time Do People Vote?

Abstract

Insights from time-budget studies are applied to reassess previous work on factors conditioning the time of day when people vote. In sharp contrast to expectations raised by the literature, the findings reveal weak multivariate effects of attitudinal, behavioral, and situational conditioning factors. Ricardo Klorman is Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology, State UJniversity of New York at Stony Brook. The author is grateful to Robert Hodge for his comments on an earlier draft of this article. POQ 40 (1976) 182-193 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.209 on Sun, 11 Jun 2017 18:33:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms WHAT TIME DO PEOPLE VOTE? 183 This study is concerned with the time of day when people cast their votes, a subject which has received secondary attention in research dealing with the effects of computerized election forecasts by television networks upon turnout and the vote.4 The selection of time of voting as a research topic is far from frivolous. Students of time-budgets have often remarked that most of the average day is invested in relatively mandatory routines which structure the timing of other activities,5 and that we seem to take for granted such factors as work status, stage in the life cycle, and sex roles in shaping the allocation of time.6 This study estimates the magnitude of the bivariate and multivariate effects of some of the systematic conditions which have been advanced in the literature as influencing the time of day when votes are cast. Since previous studies have not reported the strength of the observed associations, their data are re-analyzed. In addition, use is made of census tabulations dealing with estimates of the time of voting for the civilian noninstitutional population during the 1972 presidential election.7 Finally, we utilize a national survey of households conducted by the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan during the 1964 presidential election.8 The main factor affecting the time when votes are cast is the state law that sets polling hours for general elections. According to the most recent compilation, opening hours range from 5:45 A.M. to 1 P.M., while closing hours extend from 6 to 9 P.M.9 It is difficult to consolidate descriptive statistics on polling hours since a good number of states have wide-ranging hours contingent upon size of locality, use of voting machines, etc. Furthermore, members of the judiciary have been known to alter these hours to facilitate voting.10 However, within these broad limits, wide individual variation in the time of voting may be discerned. During the 1972 presidential election, relatively few individuals voted prior to 8 A.M. (1 1.4 perI The bulk of this research is conveniently summarized in U.S. Senate, Hearings of the Subcommittee on Communications of the Committee on Commerce, Projections-Predictions of Election Results and Political Broadcasting, 90th Congress, 1st session, Washington D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, July 18-20, 1967, pp. 161-172, 211-219, 238-266, 319-329. 5 See Stuart Chapin, Activity Patterns in the City, New York, Wiley, 1974, p. 9; Stuart Chapin and Richard Brail, Human Activity Systems in the Metropolitan United Environment and Behavior, Vol. 1, 1969, pp. 107-130. 6Chapin, op. cit., p. 112. Further details about this survey appear in U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 253, Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973, pp. 13-14. This is the first time that the November sample was asked about the time of day when votes were cast. 8 For further details see Inter-university Consortium for Political Research, The 1964 Election Study, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, 1971. This survey was made available through the Inter-university Consortium for Political Research. Neither the SRC nor the ICPR are responsible for the analysis and interpretations presented in this article. I Council of State Governments, The Book of the States, 1974-75, Lexington, Ky., 1974 pp. 36-37. 10 See for instance the New York Times, November 8, 1972, p. 36. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.209 on Sun, 11 Jun 2017 18:33:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms