The Politics of Policy: The Initial Mass Political Effects of Medicaid Expansion in the States

2017 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSHUA D. CLINTON ◽  
MICHAEL W. SANCES
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Patient Protection ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
State Variation ◽  
States Experience ◽  
The Impact

Whether public policy affects electoral politics is an enduring question with an elusive answer. We identify the impact of the highly contested Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 by exploiting cross-state variation created by the 2012 Supreme Court decision inNational Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. We compare changes in registration and turnout following the expansion of Medicaid in January of 2014 to show that counties in expansion states experience higher political participation compared to similar counties in nonexpansion states. Importantly, the increases we identify are concentrated in counties with the largest percentage of eligible beneficiaries. The effect on voter registration persists through the 2016 election, but an impact on voter turnout is only evident in 2014. Despite the partisan politics surrounding the ACA–a political environment that differs markedly from social programs producing policy feedbacks in the past—our evidence is broadly consistent with claims that social policy programs can produce some political impacts, at least in the short-term.

The Effect of Registration Laws on Voter Turnout

1978 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Rosenstone ◽  
Raymond E. Wolfinger
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Population Survey ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Registration Laws ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
State Registration ◽  
The Impact

After the drastic relaxation of voter registration requirements in the 1960s, do present state laws keep people away from the polls? More specifically, which provisions have how much effect on what kinds of people? We have answered these questions with data from the Current Population Survey conducted by the Census Bureau in November 1972.State registration laws reduced turnout in the 1972 presidential election by about nine percentage points. The impact of the laws was heaviest in the South and on less educated people of both races. Early deadlines for registration and limited registration office hours were the biggest impediments to turnout.Contrary to expectations, changing these requirements would not substantially alter the character of the electorate. The voting population would be faintly less affluent and educated; the biggest difference would be a matter of one or two percentage points. In strictly political terms, the change would be even fainter–a gain for the Democrats of less than half a percent.

scholarly journals The Coronavirus Pandemic and Voter Turnout: Addressing the Impact of Covid-19 on Electoral Participation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Santana ◽  
José Rama ◽  
Fernando Casal Bértoa
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Basque Country ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
External Shocks ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Electoral Fraud ◽  
Civic Duty ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Regional Elections ◽  
The Impact

External shocks have been shown to be able to alter countries’ political dynamics in a deep manner. The number of works examining the impact of economic crisis, natural disasters or even terrorist attacks are numerous. However, the literature addressing the political effects of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is still in its infancy. Definitively, the pandemic has constituted an unpredictable external shock not only affecting the health of millions around the planet but also damaging the economic and social stability of most countries. Politically, it has forced electoral authorities in some countries to postpone elections (e.g. Kiribati, North Macedonia, Sri Lanka), to suspend voting rights for those infected with the virus (e.g. Galicia and Basque Country in Spain) or to adapt postal vote regulations (e.g. Bavaria in Germany) in order to guarantee citizens’ voting rights and diminish electoral fraud. Trying to fill a lacuna in the literature, the goal of this article is to give a first and nuanced examination on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted electoral participation all over the world. To that end we have collected data on all parliamentary, presidential and regional elections held worldwide during the first seven months since the COVID-19 outbreak became recognized as a health emergency of global scope and started to affect the organization of elections (March 1st-September 30th, 2020). Our results show that while voter turnout has not generally declined in comparison with those elections held before the pandemic, electoral participation is lower in polities hit by the pandemic the most, both in terms of infections and – especially - deceases. This seems to point to the fact that when faced with a choice (civic duty vs. personal risk), the fear of becoming infected will constrain voters to opt for the former.

The 2016 Pennsylvania Presidential and U.S. Senate Elections: Breaking Pennsylvania’s Electoral Habits

Commonwealth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Berwood Yost ◽  
Jackie Redman ◽  
Scottie Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Current Direction ◽  
Senate Elections ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
Election Results

This article uses pre-election survey data, post-election survey data, and voter registration and election data to interpret the outcomes of the 2016 presidential and U.S. Senate races in Pennsylvania. This analysis shows how changes in voter registration and voter turnout in specific areas of the Commonwealth, driven in large part by less-educated voters, those dissatisfied with the current direction of the country, and the performance of the incumbent president, explain the 2016 election results. 

scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic and the 2020 Elections in Ghana

2020 ◽  
pp. 94-102
Author(s):  
Frank Bitafir Ijon ◽  
B. B. B. Bingab
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Early Voting ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Desk Review

The paper explores the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on Ghana’s election 2020 which will be conducted on the 7th December 2020. The paper argues that despite the fact that the pandemic has negatively affected the 2020 elections process, it also presents political parties and the Electoral Commission the opportunity to be innovative in their activities. The study adopts a content analysis approach and depends mainly on the desk review of related literature on the topic under investigation. The study found that the possible negative impacts of the virus on the 2020 elections include: low voter turnout because of the fear of contracting the virus due to human contacts at the voting centers and postponement of the 2020 elections if the spread goes out of hand. The impacts felt already include postponement of voter registration exercise from April 2020 to June 2020 and the ban on political activities such as mass campaigns. Again, one positive impact of the virus is that it has made political parties innovative in the mobilization of voters through the use of various social media platforms. Now campaigns and other political activities are held via the internet. With such innovation, the paper proposes that the E.C. should consider online voting, postal voting, and early voting in the 2020 election as a way of reducing human conduct and overcrowding on the day of voting in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The Three-Legged Stool of Voter Engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Adelaide K. Sandler ◽  
Mary E. Hylton ◽  
Jason Ostrander ◽  
Tanya R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Elected Officials ◽  
Allocation Of Resources ◽  
Community Members ◽  
The Past ◽  
Voting Decisions

Disparities in voter turnout have increased significantly over the past four decades. Members of historically oppressed groups, those who are low-income, and or who have lower levels of education vote at significantly lower rates than white, wealthy and or more educated community members. These disparities correlate directly to political power and the eventual allocation of resources by elected officials. Therefore, eliminating these disparities through targeted voter engagement with client groups is particularly important for the profession of social work. This article describes the conceptualization of voter engagement as a three-legged stool, consisting of voter registration, regular voting, and basing voting decisions on self-interest.Without attention to all three legs, the potential for generating political power collapses, resulting in minimal influence on elected officials.

Eviction and Voter Turnout: The Political Consequences of Housing Instability

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232922110507
Author(s):  
Gillian Slee ◽  
Matthew Desmond
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Additive Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Endogeneity Bias ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Housing Costs ◽  
Election Results ◽  
The Impact

In recent years, housing costs have outpaced incomes in the United States, resulting in millions of eviction filings each year. Yet no study has examined the link between eviction and voting. Drawing on a novel data set that combines tens of millions of eviction and voting records, this article finds that residential eviction rates negatively impacted voter turnout during the 2016 presidential election. Results from a generalized additive model show eviction’s effect on voter turnout to be strongest in neighborhoods with relatively low rates of displacement. To address endogeneity bias and estimate the causal effect of eviction on voting, the analysis treats commercial evictions as an instrument for residential evictions, finding that increases in neighborhood eviction rates led to substantial declines in voter turnout. This study demonstrates that the impact of eviction reverberates far beyond housing loss, affecting democratic participation.

Candidate Preference, State Context, and Voter Turnout: Comparing Non-Voters and Voters in the 2016 Presidential Election

The Forum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-227
Author(s):  
Vladimir E. Medenica ◽  
Matthew Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Electoral Behavior ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Contextual Variation ◽  
Candidate Preference ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Future Work ◽  
State Context

Abstract While much attention has been paid to understanding the drivers of support for Donald Trump, less focus has been placed on understanding the factors that led individuals to turn out and vote or stay home. This paper compares non-voters and voters in the 2016 election and explores how self-reported candidate preference prior to the election predicted turnout across three different state contexts: (1) all states, (2) closely contested states won by Trump, and (3) closely contested states won by Clinton. We find that preference for both candidates predicted turnout in the aggregate (all states) and in closely contested states won by Clinton, but only preference for Trump predicted turnout in the closely contested states won by Trump. Moreover, we find that political interest is negatively associated with preference for Clinton when examining candidate preferences among non-voters. Our analysis suggests that non-voters in the 2016 election held meaningful candidate preferences that impacted voter turnout but that state context played an important role in this relationship. This study sheds light on an understudied component of the 2016 election, the attitudes and behavior of non-voters, as well as points to the importance of incorporating contextual variation in future work on electoral behavior and voter turnout.

scholarly journals The Affordable Care Act (2010) and its perceived impact on assisted fertility care access: Pilot data from a national sample of women’s health practitioners in USA

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Denis A Vaughan ◽  
Irene Dimitriadis ◽  
Eric Scott Sills ◽  
Kelly Pagidis
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Patient Protection ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Perceived Impact ◽  
The Impact

Objective: The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (ACA), or “Obamacare”, represents the most substantial reform of the U.S. healthcare system since the 1965 creation of Medicare and Medicaid. This investigation sought to ascertain knowledge and opinion among physicians providing women’s healthcare services about how this national health program will impact access to fertility treatments.Methods: Between May-July 2014, doctor’s perceptions of ACA were registered by anonymous questionnaire submitted to program directors and house staff at 50 accredited obstetrics & gynecology training centers in USA. Self-reported political preferences were also tabulated for each respondent.Results: Overall, 53.3% of participants (n = 114) claimed familiarity with ACA although this varied significantly by seniority (68.8% of faculty vs. 40% of trainees; p = .003). Among respondents 54.9% identified as liberal, 23% as moderate, and 19.5% as conservative. Most physicians in this sample (51.8%) anticipated a positive impact on assisted fertility care from ACA, 17.9% predicted an adverse effect, and just under one third (30.3%) either had no opinion or were unable to make a prediction.Conclusions: This study offers the first analysis of women’s healthcare physicians’ opinion about the impact of ACA on assisted fertility services. Our report finds low general familiarity of ACA among doctors. Moreover, marked divisions of opinion exist among physicians concerning the ACA in general, as well as what role the ACA should play in the provision of assisted fertility care specifically. If U.S. physicians are to provide leadership on women’s healthcare policy initiatives with a view to reach consensus (especially with respect to assisted fertility services), improved awareness of the ACA and its sequela will be crucial.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document