Crossover Voting Research Articles

Who Were the Stalwarts? Who Were Their Rivals? Republican Factions in the Gilded Age

The years from Reconstruction to the Spanish-American War, the so-called Gilded Age, were a golden age of political partisanship. Crossover voting was rare; independents were scorned. To a degree unmatched since, party loyalty was a test of manhood; partisan allegiance represented a means of self-identification. To be a Republican or to be a Democrat-these were not lightly-made decisions but were shaped by self-interest, ethnicity, and, above all, history, most notably the polarizing trauma of the Civil War. Such passionately-held partisanship did not guarantee party unity. Quite the contrary; the very importance of parties as institutions intensified the internal struggle to control the party's machinery and shape its program. Yet, at the same time, the political imperatives of an era characterized by high voter turnout, straight ticket voting, and close national elections dictated a strategy of mobilizing one's own adherents rather than persuading the unpersuaded. Since one disgruntled faction could deprive the national ticket of victory by sitting on its hands, party managers were compelled to devote the bulk of their energies to securing party unity and enthusiasm. In the voluminous correspondence of James A. Garfield during the presidential campaign of 1880, for example, there is scarcely any mention of the Democrats, but considerable attention is paid to

Women in labour: The flapper vote and party system transformation in Britain

The impact of the enfranchisement of women under 30 upon the British party system is analyzed, especially the extent to which the Labour party at a crucial period in its rise to major party status was able to mobilize an uncommitted major segment of the electorate. The analysis seeks to supply an explanation missing from Butler and Stokes' finding of a sizable gender difference in class crossover voting among the interwar cohort. Both substantive and symbolic mobilization efforts are analyzed. Analysis of constituency electoral results for elections from the mid-1920s through the mid-1930s finds that the political crisis of 1931 undermined Labour's efforts to mobilize the female vote and appears in particular to have driven substantial numbers of working class women to vote for other parties, thereby weakening their support for Labour well into the postwar period. Labour's failure to mobilize young women meant that it was able to obtain major party status only when World War II experiences caused a substantial number of middle class men to swing to the party

Racial Crossover Voting and the Election of Black Officials

Little is known about the voting behavior of blacks aside from the observation that they are likely to vote in blocs for black candidates. In this study, we analyze fifty-two Atlanta area elections in which black and white candidates opposed each other. While Atlanta voters usually vote for candidates of their own race, this practice is more varied and less extensive than in the rural southern communities which others have analyzed. The extent to which voters support candidates not of their race varies greatly. Multivariate models can explain about 75 percent of the variance in black crossover voting and almost 60 percent of the variance in white crossovers. Incumbency and newspaper endorsements are especially important in attracting crossover votes. Three models, derived from differing expectations about the degree of prejudice, for estimating the share of votes cast for black candidates were tested. Ninety percent of the variance in election outcomes in Atlanta can be explained by the crossover model wh...

VOTING IN AN OPEN PRIMARY

Using data collected from state-wide surveys for the four most recent presidential primaries in Wisconsin, together with data from three other states for 1976 and 1980, this study examines (1) the preponderance of party-consistent, independent, and cross-over voting; (2) the percentages of votes given various candidates from these types of voters; and (3) the probable “winners” in the four Wisconsin primaries under different hypothetical participation rules.

THE ELECTION OF BLACK MAYORS, 1977∗

Significant changes in the electoral support of black mayors occurred in 1977. Bloc-voting against black incumbents by whites decreased dramatically in all cities, except Detroit, while bloc-support for the mayors continued in black precincts. Overall turnout was lowered significantly but black turnout rates continued to exceed white rates. The “Manhattan Coalition”of blacks and upper- and middle-income whites was revised in 1977 in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, but Detroit continued to experience a strong electoral cleavage based on intraracial cohesion and little crossover voting. The black mayoral victory in New Orleans was based on the same combination of factors as in the other cities in 1973.

Cross-Over Voting in a 1976 Open Presidential Primary

Using data collected from a polling place survey with 1,279 voters in the fourcounty metropolitan Milwaukee area, this report considers how much cross-over voting took place in the 1976 presidential primary, the degree to which the cross-over vote was a mischief one, the social backgrounds of cross-over and consistent voters, and the reasons cited for the candidate choice of cross-over and consistent voters. Ronald D. Hedlund is Professor in the Department of Political Science and a Scientist in the Urban Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The author wishes to thank several individuals and institutions for their contributions in completing this report: The Milwaukee Sentinel -especially Laurie Van Dyke, Keith Spore, and John Blexrudcollected the data and generously made it available for secondary analysis. William Schneider of Harvard University served as a consultant in preparing the questionnaire and in interpreting the results, and my colleagues Meredith Watts, Keith Hamm, and Robert Stein made numerous comments and suggestions. Significant financial support for analysis and computer time was provided by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Graduate School, Urban Research Center, and Social Science Research Facility. POQ 41(1977-78) 498-514 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.133 on Fri, 22 Jul 2016 05:26:32 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms CROSS-OVER VOTING 499 maries is viewed by some as a strictly party matter. By permitting nonparty as well as party members to vote in a primary, partisan control over the nomination of its candidates, and thus party discipline, is diluted. Open primaries and the resultant cross-over voting are argued to be counterproductive to the building of a strong and responsible two-party

How Much Cross-Over Voting?

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Cross-over Voting and the Democratic Party's Reform Rules

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The Consequences of Cross-Over Voting

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