Voter Information Sources in a Nonpartisan Local Election

• Date: 01 March 1968
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296802100105
• Author: M. Margaret Conway
• Published date: 01 March 1968
• Subject Matter: Articles

VOTER INFORMATION SOURCES IN A
NONPARTISAN LOCAL ELECTION
M. MARGARET CONWAY
University of Maryland
EVERAL
ANALYSES of political participation have indicated that voting
~~~ behavior or political participation of any type is in part a function of politi-
S cal stimuli available to the citizen. Those who receive a greater number of
stimuli are more likely to participate and to participate actively.~ The reception of
stimuli is a function of the individual’s perceptual screen. A number of studies have
found that persons who have high exposure to one media generally have high expo-
sure to several different kinds, and this continues throughout a political campaign.2
2
Those who are high in the consumption of non-political stimuli tend to be high in
the consumption of political StiMUli,3 and persons who are interested in politics are
more attentive to political stimuli than those who are less interested.
4
Individuals who are more exposed to the communications media are more
likely to be interested in politics, to vote, to have a party preference, to discuss poli-
tics, to have opinions on issues congruent with party stands, and to support the
candidate of their party.5 Exposure to the media and interest in politics are mutu-
ally reinforcing, with interest leading to more exposure and increased exposure
leading to greater political interest.’s
The mass media perform the function in a partisan election of assisting the
voters in the cognitive process of associating party affiliation with candidate name,
and also serve the preliminary function of alerting the voters to the mere existence
of an impending election.7 The absence of party as an active organization to pro-
vide a clue to the alternatives available may cause voters in nonpartisan elections
to seek other voting cues. Among the voting cues are those provided by the mass
media or by organizations with a base in the local community. Banfield and Wilson
have stated that &dquo;the readers of newspapers and the members of civic associations,
labor unions, women’s clubs, and the like often rely heavily upon an ’approved
slate’ in choosing among the party-less and for most voters, meaningless, names on
the ballot.&dquo; 11
NOTE: The computer time for this project was made available through the facilities of the
Computer Science Center of the University of Maryland. Also acknowledged are the
contributions of students in an advanced political behavior class to the design and execu-
tion of the study on which this article is based.
1
Lester Milbrath, Political Participation (Chicago: Rand-McNally, 1965), p. 39; Gabrial
Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1963),
pp. 90-92; Bernard R. Berelson, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and William N. McPhee, Voting
(Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1954), p. 252.
2
Milbrath, op. cit., p. 45.
3
Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee, op, cit., p. 251.
4

Ibid.
;
Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudel, The People’s Choice (New
York: Columbia U. Press, 1944), p. 124.
5
Robert Lane, Political Life (New York : Free Press, 1959), p. 288.
6

Ibid., pp. 279-80.
7

Ibid.,
p.
279.
8
Edward Banfield and James Q. Wilson, City Politics (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1963), p. 157.
69

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70
To what extent are the various media of communication utilized by eligible
voters in a nonpartisan election? This study examines the relationship between per-
ception of campaign information in the various mass media, alternative sources of
information available to and used by the voters, and voter turnout, perception of
city problems, and perception of issues in the campaign.
METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in College Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington,
D.C. This city of approximately 20,000 population is primarily residential, contain-
ing only a few light industry plants; however, it is the site of a large university and
is within easy commuting distance of a number of industrial, research, and govern-
mental facilities. The simple random sample was drawn from the list of persons
eligible to vote in the 1965 city election in which the mayor, two at-large council-
men and six district councilmen were being elected. The research procedure used
resulted in 182 usable responses to a structured questionnaire containing 68 ques-
tions ; the questionnaire was administered by personal interviews during the week
following the election.
The number of persons registered to vote was 3,706; this is one-third the
number city officials estimate as being eligible to register. A separate registration
procedure is used for city elections from that used in county, state, and national
elections. Most functions of local government are provided by county government
or special governmental districts, the city being responsible for provision of some
recreational facilities, traflic and parking regulation, refuse collection and disposal,
street construction and maintenance, and housing and building construction.
The eligible voters in the election can as a group be classified as middle class.
More than 90 per cent were members of families in which the head of the house-
hold was employed in a white-collar occupation, and 54 per cent of the eligible
voters had attended college or completed college. Among those voters who indi-
cated a partisan identification 72 per cent were Democratic, which is in congruence
with the partisan political system’s...