Elections

From nascent democracies struggling with corruption to the world’s oldest democracies grappling with how to change their creaky systems, the issue of free and fair elections is ever-present around the globe.

From the infamous 1948 “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline in the Chicago Tribune to the reporting debacle around the “Bush v. Gore” 2000 presidential election, news media have sometimes under-served the public on Election Day, sowing confusion and mistrust.

The general responses of presidential campaigns to challenges and moments of great risk can seem haphazard; decision-making may appear to depend entirely on the character of the specific candidate and campaign. But as a scholar at Columbia University argues in a 2011 study, “presidential campaign management is potentially far more predictable than it at first appears.”

Mitt Romney is first Mormon in U.S. history to become a presidential nominee for one of the country’s major political parties. His running mate, Paul Ryan, is Catholic, but this has caused far fewer waves in 2012 than John Kennedy’s religion did in 1960. Instead, it’s the presidential nominee’s faith that has brought attention to a religion once considered outside the mainstream of U.S. culture.

Issue-specific political advertisements are ubiquitous during elections, and they’re often assumed to be effective in increasing voter turnout. Such ads frequently target specific groups — what political scientists sometimes call “issue publics” — such as veterans, parents or senior citizens.