White evangelical Protestants versus everyone else
An examination of voting behavior from the last five presidential elections makes the vast difference vividly apparent. Yes, religion is a more important analytic lens than is generally appreciated.
They won the battle, but will they win the war?
Though the supporters of Proposition 30 (Prop 30), the California ballot initiative to raise income tax rates on high earners as well as sales taxes across the board, put together a highly successful campaign, some wonder whether the techniques used to sell Prop 30 carry with them the risk of undermining future efforts to bolster government services.
Selling Prop 30
Remapping Debate investigates how advocates for California’s tax-increasing ballot initiative made their case and what lessons the campaign holds for others who seek to bolster government services.
Underfunding of voter registration: a guarantee that 25 percent or more of Americans won’t participate
According to the Census Bureau, even during presidential election years, at least a quarter of the eligible electorate has been unregistered in the period from 1980 through 2008. But current voter registration efforts don’t come close to meeting the need, especially because so much of registration under the U.S. system is highly labor-intensive.
Don’t be fooled by “common sense”
Politicians have used and abused the term “common sense” for a long time. A discussion of the history of the term and why appeals to common sense need to be scrutinized carefully.
Digging down into voter turnout
New data viz allows you to create demographic composites — using race and ethnicity, sex, age, and educational attainment — to get detailed portraits of national voter turnout and registration since 2006.