November 2013

SARAH BENJ

THE VOTING THEORY

What Does It Mean To Be A Irrational or Rational Voter?

Its voting time, the lines are long and the people are talking amongst themselves about which party they belong to, who theyre voting for and why they are voting for them. Taking a closer look at the individuals who are ready to vote, theyre either rational or irrational voters. What does it mean to be rational or irrational voter? Rational voters are those who do their homework, such as research, they seek as much information about all the candidates that they can. Rational voters weigh policy positions, they look into a few issues that are important, they consider the positives and negatives and evaluate them against their personal interests Irrational voters are the complete opposite of rational voters. Irrational voters base their decisions on a candidates characteristics, such as looks. They also look for tribal connections, for instance if the candidate practices the same religion, shares the race or ethnic group and values family. The voter may feel more connected to the candidate if they share these characteristics. Irrational voters usually also look for personal qualities of the candidates. Moreover, irrational voters tend to be influenced by variety of advertising.

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RATIONAL VOTER
Matt Williams is 41 years old and he is an active voter. When I asked him why he is voting for the candidate thats running for the upcoming election, Mr. Williams stated that he is voting for the candidate because he agrees with the different policies the candidate is offering; second he stated that the new candidates new policy of healthcare would be great for his family. Mr. Williams also stated that hes been tuned in to every campaign, all the advertisements and he also has clear knowledge of what the new candidate has to offer if he get elected to be the president.

RATIONAL PERSON

IRRATIONAL VOTER

Brenda Brian is 35 years of age. Brenda is from Mexico and she is a mother of three children. I asked her if she votes every election. Ms. Brian stated, I dont vote every election. I asked why was she voting in this upcoming election and she stated that she really likes the new candidate because the candidate is female and she went on to say that it was time to see a female president. Brenda also stated that the female candidate is family oriented and she values religion which Brenda also values. She believes having the female candidate, who practices the same religion, would make a lot of differences in the country.
IRRATIONAL PERSON

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Voting Records Voting records are public information and they contain the persons name, address, party affiliation and votes cast. Anyone can obtain the voting records for another individual by simply going to the County clerks office or the Secretary of States office. Voting record also provides information on the positions of senators and representatives on the issues that are important.

CAMPAIGN FINANCES

The rational voter would want to look into the campaign finances in order to see how much money has been raised, how the money is being raised and how the money is being spent. The informed voter would want to make sure the candidate is not being careless with the money raised because that could be a sign of how he/she may be if elected into office. Two good resources to find out about campaign finances are: www.opensecrets.org www.brookings.edu

CAMPAIGN ADVERTISING AND COMMERCIALS

According to Paul Craig Roberts, author of The Republicans Cross the Rubicon , The US media is Washingtons propaganda ministry. The US media has only one function-to lie for Washington. The candidate commercials aired today are merely tools to slander the name of the opposing candidate. They act as though, if they succeed in making their opponent look bad, then they will ultimately look good in the eyes of the voters. The commercials aired focus only on the flaw(s) of the candidate and the good aspects of the candidate are lost. For example: During the last election Mitt Romney approved a commercial stating that President Obama allowed China to cheat because their manufacturing industry grew while ours did not. Honestly, the fact that the industries grow overseas is not directly related to how our President runs our country. In conclusion, the information that the commercials give is not completely accurate and, many times, very far from the truth which ultimately miss-informs the voters.

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CALLING ALL RATIONAL VOTERS!

At our annual rally we decided to test these theories and asked some attendees some questions on being a rational voter. When the attendees walked in they were handed a postcard that asked, Has there been anything in Obama or Romneys Campaign ads that youd call a lie? On the back of the cards they were able to mark: contained a lie, stuck to the truth or no opinion. The results are displayed to the right. We randomly picked ten attendees and asked them how they voted (if they are rational or irrational voters) and what part the media had in their decision. For the voters that valued the information displayed in the media, we determined they were irrational voters. The rational voters that we interviewed ultimately based their decisions on the facts and abilities displayed by the candidates.

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Work Cites

"What Is a Voting Record?" What Is a Voting Record? N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013 Hurbert, David, Ph.D. Attenuated Democracy: An Introduction to U.S. National Government and Politics. Salt Lake City: n.p., 2013. Print James, Brendan. "Americans Say Obama's Ads Are More Honest, but Expect Both Sides to Lie, Esquire/Yahoo Poll Finds." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 7 Nov. 2013