There has been much scholarly attention directed at the Iraq war's role in determining voter choice. I attempt to extend that research into voter turnout to determine what role the Iraq war played in 2006 voter turnout. This paper argues that turnout at the state level could be explained by the number of US deaths each state had sustained from the Iraq occupation at the time of the election. A theory of voter activation based on information availability is put forth to explain the relationship between national events and voter turnout wherein national events like the Iraq war will raise the amount of information voters have at their disposal, which will increase the likelihood of their voting on election day. Regression analysis comparing the turnout rates of the 50 states to their casualties in Iraq revealed no relationship between the two factors, indicating that something else is responsible for the high turnout of the midterm.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc12136 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Kahanek, Jared E. |
| Contributors | Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew, Maeda, Ko, Oldmixon, Elizabeth A. |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | Text |
| Rights | Public, Copyright, Kahanek, Jared E., Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. |
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