How Elections Are Won in Spite of All Those Voters

Modern political campaigns operate within a system of rules and procedures where candidates often employ political consultants to help them win elections. This course will look at the tactics and strategies that are used by candidates and their consultants to “game” our “free and fair” elections—and examine the collateral damage they cause to voter participation, optimal choices, public trust and public approval of our government. We’ll learn about gerrymandering, vote splitting, “spoiler” candidates and negative campaigning. We’ll see how targeted communications, opinion polling and news media sometimes contribute to (and sometimes pollute) the information environment of the electorate.

Why do we have a two-party system? Why is the approval rating of Congress typically under 30% while voters endlessly reelect the same Senators and Representatives? And why has partisanship and divisiveness been on the rise? Research on methods of voting has found serious flaws in the plurality count (our current method). We’ll examine alternative voting methods that may better reflect the preferences of voters in election outcomes.

Barry Cook, Ph.D., is a social psychologist who worked in media research and public opinion research—often with the goal of understanding how and why people make choices. After many years of studying the attitudes and behavior of television viewers, he is painfully aware that giving the people complete freedom to choose what to watch doesn’t make them happy if nothing good is on. This might also apply to candidate offerings.