Chapter 22 Quiz
12 multiple-choice questions and 4 short-answer questions. Answer key at the end.
Multiple Choice (1 point each)
1. Which denominator is generally regarded as the cleanest measure of "Americans who could legally vote"?
a) Voting-Age Population (VAP) b) Voting-Eligible Population (VEP) c) Registered voters d) Adult U.S. residents
2. The 2020 U.S. presidential election produced VEP turnout of approximately:
a) 53% b) 60% c) 67% d) 75%
This was the highest U.S. presidential turnout since:
a) 1992 b) 1968 c) 1928 d) 1900
3. The single strongest demographic predictor of voter turnout, after controlling for other variables, is:
a) Income b) Age c) Education d) Race
4. The "education realignment" refers to:
a) The expansion of college-graduate populations in major metropolitan areas b) The post-2016 pattern in which college-educated voters lean more Democratic and non-college voters lean more Republican c) The rising influence of education-policy issues in presidential campaigns d) The increasing politicization of public-school curricula
5. In 2024, Trump won approximately what share of the Hispanic vote?
a) 25% b) 35% c) 45% d) 55%
This represented a substantial shift from 2012, when:
a) Romney won approximately 27% of the Hispanic vote b) Romney won approximately 45% c) Romney won approximately 55% d) Romney won approximately 70%
6. The Verba, Schlozman, and Brady "resource model" of political participation argues that voting requires three resources, all of which are unequally distributed. They are:
a) Income, education, and free time b) Time, money, and civic skills c) Information, motivation, and access d) Citizenship, registration, and transportation
7. Field experiments by Donald Green and Alan Gerber found that the most effective form of voter mobilization, per voter contacted, is:
a) Robo-calls b) Direct mail c) In-person canvassing (door-knocking) d) Generic email
8. The "paradox of voting" in rational-choice theory points out that:
a) Voters often choose candidates they don't actually agree with b) The probability that a single vote decides an election is essentially zero, so voting appears irrational under narrow cost-benefit analysis c) Higher turnout often produces lower-quality democratic outcomes d) Voters who care most about politics are the least likely to turn out
9. Which federal law required states to allow voter registration through driver's-license offices?
a) The Voting Rights Act of 1965 b) The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 ("Motor Voter") c) The Help America Vote Act of 2002 d) The Bipartisan Election Reform Act of 2014
10. In 2020, approximately what share of votes were cast by mail or absentee?
a) 12% b) 22% c) 39% d) 65%
The 2024 figure was approximately:
a) Higher (~50%) b) About the same (~38%) c) Lower than 2020 (~23%) d) Negligible (mail voting was largely repealed)
11. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels' book Democracy for Realists (2016) argues that:
a) Voters are essentially rational evaluators of incumbent performance b) Retrospective voting works because voters can identify the cause of economic conditions c) Retrospective voting is closer to arbitrary blame-assignment than rational performance evaluation d) Voters successfully reward incumbents for good policy and punish them for bad policy
12. The most rigorous empirical studies on the turnout effects of strict voter-ID laws have generally found:
a) Large negative effects on aggregate turnout, especially among minority voters b) No significant effect on turnout under any methodology c) Effects are smaller than activists claim, with mixed evidence on disparate impact across demographic groups d) Voter-ID laws actually increase turnout by enhancing trust in elections
Short Answer (3 points each)
13. (3 points) Define the three denominators used to calculate turnout (VAP, VEP, registered voters) and explain why VEP is generally preferred for assessing American civic participation. Use 100-150 words.
14. (3 points) Explain the post-2016 "education realignment" in two paragraphs. (a) What is the empirical pattern? (b) What are two competing explanations for why the pattern emerged when it did?
15. (3 points) State the strongest progressive critique of strict voter-ID laws and the strongest conservative defense, in equal length. Then state what the chapter argues the empirical evidence does and does not establish about their effects. Use 200-250 words total.
16. (3 points) Identify and briefly explain four reasons people vote despite the rational-choice paradox (the fact that any single vote has essentially zero probability of being decisive). For each reason, provide an example or describe a mechanism.
Answer Key
Multiple Choice:
- b (Voting-Eligible Population)
- c (67%) and d (1900)
- c (Education)
- b (post-2016 educational divide)
- c (45%) and a (Romney won ~27%)
- b (time, money, civic skills)
- c (in-person canvassing)
- b (probability of decisiveness ~zero)
- b (NVRA, 1993)
- c (39%) and c (~23% in 2024)
- c (closer to blame-assignment than rational evaluation)
- c (smaller than claimed; mixed evidence on disparate impact)
Short Answers:
13. VAP includes all adults regardless of citizenship or felony status. VEP excludes non-citizens (~22 million) and (where applicable) people with felony convictions; this is the cleanest "could have voted" denominator. Registered voters is the smallest of the three; turnout-as-percent-of-registered is always higher because it ignores the unregistered. VEP is preferred because it gives the cleanest comparison across states (which have different non-citizen populations and different felon-disenfranchisement rules) and across time, and because it captures the participation gap that includes the unregistered — who are the very voters most reform efforts aim to reach.
14. (a) College-educated voters now lean substantially Democratic; non-college voters now lean substantially Republican. The pattern was nearly absent in 2000-2008 (gap ~0-1 point) and became dominant after 2016 (gap ~12-14 points). (b) Two competing explanations: (1) Cultural sorting — issues that previously cross-cut both coalitions (immigration, race, gender, religion) have polarized along educational lines, with college voters becoming more cosmopolitan and non-college voters more populist. (2) Republican strategic shift — GOP messaging shifted toward economic populism on trade and immigration, attracting non-college voters who once voted Democratic on bread-and-butter economics. Both likely matter; their relative weight is contested.
15. Progressive critique: Many post-2010 voting laws were enacted by Republican legislatures in states with shifting demographics, designed in ways that disproportionately disadvantage Democratic-leaning voters (Black, Hispanic, young, low-income). Even race-neutral laws have demonstrable disparate impacts. Some laws (NC 2013) have been struck down for being targeted with "almost surgical precision." Conservative defense: Election integrity has independent value; voter ID is normal in most advanced democracies; the empirical evidence on suppression effects is contested; universal mail balloting and unrestricted ballot collection carry real administrative risks. Empirical evidence: The most rigorous studies (Cantoni and Pons, others) find smaller aggregate effects than activists claim, but effects can be consequential at the margin and can have disparate impact even when aggregate effects are small. The disparate-impact question is harder to litigate than the aggregate question; how to weigh them depends on values, not just data.
16. (1) Civic-duty value — voters believe they ought to vote as a citizenship obligation; the duty itself has intrinsic value. (2) Expressive value — voting is self-expression; the act of voting is itself the point, like cheering at a sports event. (3) Group-conformity value — voters vote because their family/friends/community vote; turnout is contagious within networks. (4) Investment value — democracy depends on enough votes being cast; voters contribute their share to maintaining the system. None is fully satisfying alone; together, they suggest voting is a complex social and psychological behavior, not a narrowly instrumental one.