Your Thoughts Matter

Primaries

Exit polls: Better or worse since the 2000 election?

Source: JournalistsResource.org

Exit polls are surveys conducted as voters leave their polling place on Election Day. Reaching voters at that moment is important because it overcomes the problem pollsters have conducting telephone polls: people tend to misreport whether they voted or not. The “who won and why did they win” coverage on election night, of course, comes mainly from these exit poll results.

2008 U.S. presidential primaries through the lens of prediction markets

Source: JournalistsResource.org

Political scientists continue to explore how the current U.S. presidential primary system shapes the nomination process and produces certain kinds of outcomes. Critics note that candidates in primaries often must court party voters with more extreme positions, and early primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire are not demographically or politically representative of the country as a whole.

Are state caucuses for candidates bad for democracy?

Source: JournalistsResource.org

In the absence of a constitutional mandate, the political parties in the United States have had to invent their own methods for selecting presidential candidates. States such as Iowa rely on caucuses — party-specific gatherings where participants publicly declare their candidate preference. Questions remain, however, about the fairness and representative nature of that particular electoral process.

Framing labels and immigration policy attitudes in the Iowa caucuses

Source: JournalistsResource.org

Iowa has seen significant demographic changes in the past decade as its Latino population has grown. How this trend intersects with voting patterns and political attitudes is of strong interest to scholars and election observers, of course, because of the Iowa Caucuses’ importance in the presidential nomination process.

Following the rules? Candidate strategy in presidential primaries

Source: JournalistsResource.org

In U.S. presidential nominating contests, campaigns must figure out how to allocate limited resources in order to maximize outcomes in terms of contests won and party delegates gained. Strategies may, of course, depend on the relative strength of a candidacy and be contingent on available money and candidate time.

Polls or pols? The real driving force behind presidential nominations

Source: JournalistsResource.org

Early money raised, momentum and high poll numbers are often seen by political observers as key factors in predicting how candidates will fare in the presidential primaries. However, the role of endorsements — particularly from a core group of influential party backers — is a factor that, according to some political scientists, has not received enough attention.