2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Friday, April 4-10:00 am
21-18 METHODOLOGICAL VARIETY IN POLITICAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Room UEH 405 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 10:00 am
Chair Jennifer Jerit, Florida State University
jjerit@fsu.edu
Paper Bayesian Social Learning
I describe a citizen trying to learn about the political world as data
analysis problem, develop a Bayesian learning model appropriate
to the limited information available, and compare the model
predictions to empirical results from political psychology.
Benjamin E. Lauderdale, Princeton University
blauderd@princeton.edu
Paper The Different Ways People Make Sense of Politics: A Multi-
Method Analysis
Qualitiative differences in how subjects reason are assessed.
Predictions are then made on the different ways subjects will
perform on social cognition tasks and surveys of ethnic identity and
political partisanship are predicted.
Shawn W. Rosenberg, University of California, Irvine
swr@uci.edu
Ted Wrigley, University of California, Irvine
twrigley@uci.edu
Paper Using Visuals to Measure Political Knowledge
Experiments compare otherwise identical knowledge questions that
use either visuals or words only. Women, minorities, and the less
educated do worse on verbal questions. On visual questions, they
perform as well as men, whites, and the more educated.
Markus Prior, Princeton University
mprior@princeton.edu
Disc. Christopher Brody Chapp, University of Minnesota
chapp008@umn.edu
22-8 ISSUES IN ELECTION ADMINISTRATION
Room PDR 17 on the 5th Floor, Fri at 10:00 am
Chair Michael J. Hanmer, University of Maryland
mhanmer@gvpt.umd.edu
Paper Assessing the Impact of Vote Centers on Electoral Behavior:
An Empirical Examination of Indiana Vote Centers in the 2007
Municipal Elections
Examination of the impact of Vote Centers on turnout and the cost
of election admnistration in two Indiana Counties in the fall 2007
Municipal elections.
Raymond Scheele, Ball State University
rscheele@bsu.edu
Joseph Losco, Ball State University
jlosco@bsu.edu
Gary Crawley, Ball State University
gcrawley@bsu.edu
Sally Jo Vasicko, Ball State University
svasicko@bsu.edu
Paper Much Ado About Not Very Much: The Electoral Consequences
of On-Demand Voting by Mail in Great Britain
The paper explores how changes in the 'costs' of voting through
the liberalisation of voting by mail has affected both the level of
electoral turnout and the distribution of voter support for parties.
Colin Rallings, University of Plymouth
crallings@plymouth.ac.uk
Michael Thrasher, University of Plymouth
mthrasher@plymouth.ac.uk
Galina Borisyuk, University of Plymouth
gborisyuk@plymouth
Paper
Paper
Disc.
The Institutional Causes of Class Bias in State Electorates from
1972-2000
Using aggregate-level data, this paper examines the institutional
causes of class bias in state electorates. In particular, this paper
examines the impact of election registration and voting laws, party
organizations, and labor unions.
Adam Sirimarco, University of Arizona
adsiri@email.arizona.edu
Election Verification Audits: The Role of Targeted Counts
Random post-election audits can better verify outcomes when
combined with targeted counts of anomalous results. However, the
effectiveness of targeted counts will vary. Using precinct data, this
paper tests targeted counts in various conditions.
Mark Lindeman, Bard College
lindeman@bard.edu
Hannes Richter, University of New Orleans
richter@austria.org
23-301 POSTER SESSION: ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS
Room Grand on the 4th Floor, Fri at 10:00 am
Poster 1 The Effect of Distance on Districts’ Partisan Preferences
We test whether Republican support increases as the distance from
the central city increases. We want to find out whether the distance
effects have to do with miles from the central city or if the type of
living patterns is the determinant.
Larry Schwab, John Carroll University
schwab@jcu.edu
Elizabeth A. Stiles, John Carroll University
estiles@jcu.edu
Poster 2 How Early in the Presidential Election Cycle Does
Macroeconomic Performance Matter
The possibliy of forecasting presidential election outcomes early in
the election cycle using macroeconomic data.
Bruce E. Caswell, Rowan University
caswell@rowan.edu
Poster 3 Is Election Violence an Instrument of Rigging Elections in
Kenya
This paper argues that election violence in Kenya is more
complex and universal than is generally recognized. It employs an
instrumentalisation disorder theory to determine whether election
violence is an instrument of rigging elections in Kenya.
Tiberius Barasa, Institute of Policy Analysus and Research (IPAR)
tibsrasa@yahoo.com
24-7 ELECTORAL SYSTEM CHANGE AND REFORM
Room UEH 404 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 10:00 am
Chair Howard Sanborn, University of Iowa
howard-sanborn@uiowa.edu
Paper A Quirk of Fate: An Electoral Study of the Cunningham Byelection
2002
TBA
Scott Denton, University of New South Wales
sdenton@netspace.net.au
Paper Impact of Social Movements on the Origin and Evolution of
Electoral Systems: Mexico in Comparative Perspective
The general goalof the paper is to see the extent to which the social
movements have affected Mexico's elelctoral systems origen and
evolution. Mexico's case is compared aginst Chile's and Bolivia's.
Clemente Quinones, University of Georgia
quinonc1@uga.edu
Paper Rules of the Game and Political Equity: Voter Perceptions of
Fairness and the Benefits of Electoral Reform
This paper examines the impact of perceptions of fairness on voter
response to electoral reforms.
Adriana Buliga-Stoian, Binghamton University
mbuliga1@binghamton.edu
William B. Heller, Binghamton University
wbheller@post.harvard.edu
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