Voting Behavior in Sub-Presidential Elections

理解副总统选举中的投票对于全面了解美国的投票行为是至关重要的。这最明显地源于这样一个事实，即大多数投票都是在州和地方一级进行的，他们选出了负责大规模分配和管理公共资源的政府官员。尽管这些投票决定很重要，但人们对它们的关注已经被对总统竞选的关注盖过了，在较小程度上，也盖过了对国会选举的关注。除了实质性的发现，这项研究的一个贡献是开发了一个分析副总统选举中投票行为的框架。对副总统竞选的研究很重要的是几个竞选的能见度的变化，以及能见度低是许多州和地方选举的常见情况这一事实。对高知名度的总统选举的更广泛的研究并没有提供对此类选举中投票的理解。然而，这样的竞选在美国政治中是常态，而不是例外。这项调查的背景是1990年俄亥俄州的大选，当时有一场高度引人注目的州长竞选，四个州行政办公室的适度竞争，以及两场可能低知名度的俄亥俄州最高法院席位的无党派竞争。能见度的变化对于了解选民使用的信息来源和种类的差异非常重要，因为信息变得越来越难获得。预计信息差异将对了解候选人之间的偏好基础至关重要。将测试不同的投票行为模型，包括党派路线、分裂选票、在任偏好和燕尾式投票模式。与投票决定有关的信息来源和水平，以及它们如何随着竞选活动的变化而变化，将根据不同竞选活动的可见度变化进行审查。对1200名俄亥俄州公民的采访将在劳动节后不久进行，受访者将在选举前立即重新接受采访，所有选举前的受访者将在选举后立即接受再次采访。受访者将被问到一系列关于对竞争对手的评价、态度和偏好的问题。候选人的知识将是至关重要的信息，这些知识的来源，如大众媒体以及政党和候选人在与选民沟通和争取选民支持方面的活动，也将是关键信息。除了关于以前的投票行为、政治背景和与政策相关的态度的问题外，还将向每个受访者询问一系列社会人口统计问题。

An understanding of voting in sub-presidential elections is essential to a full understanding of voting behavior in the United States. This derives most obviously from the fact that most voting is performed at the state and local level, choosing government officials responsible for allocating and administering public resources on a vast scale. Despite the importance of these voting decisions, attention to them has been overshadowed by attention to the presidential contest, and to a lesser extent, to congressional elections. In addition to substantive findings, a contribution of this study is the development of a framework for analyzing voting behavior in sub-presidential elections. Important to the study of sub-presidential contests is the variation in the visibility of the several races and the fact that low visibility is a condition common to many state and local elections. An understanding of voting in such elections has not been provided by the much more extensive research on the highly visible presidential elections. Yet such races are the norm in American politics rather than the exception. The site of this investigation is the 1990 general election in Ohio which features a highly visible governor's race, moderately visible contests for four state executive offices, and two potentially low visibility nonpartisan races for seats on the Ohio Supreme Court. The variation in visibility is important to an understanding of the differences in the sources and kinds of information that are used by voters as information becomes less obtainable. Informational differences are expected to be critical to the understanding of the bases for preferences between candidates. Different models of voting behavior will be tested, including party line, split-ticket, incumbency preference, and coattail voting patterns. The sources and levels of information brought to bear on the voting decisions, and how they change as a function of the campaign, will be examined in relation to variation in the visibility of the different contests. Interviews of 1,200 Ohio citizens will be conducted shortly after Labor Day, respondents will be re-interviewed immediately prior to the election, and all pre-election respondents will be re-interviewed immediately after the election. Respondents will be asked a series of questions regarding evaluations of, attitudes toward, and preferences for the competing candidates. Knowledge of the candidates will be critical information as will the sources of this knowledge, such as mass media and the activities of parties and candidates in communicating with and enlisting the support of voters. A full battery of socio-demographic questions will be asked of each respondent in addition to questions on prior voting behavior, political affiliations and policy-related attitudes.