Hostname: page-component-66644f4456-swwnq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T07:20:29.847Z Has data issue: true hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Election Time: Normative Implications of Temporal Properties of the Electoral Process in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2004

DENNIS F. THOMPSON
DENNIS F. THOMPSON
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Elections take place at intervals, most citizens vote on the same day, and the electoral outcome is irrevocable until the next election. Each of these temporal properties—periodicity, simultaneity, and finality—is grounded in fundamental democratic values. Analyzing the properties shows how and why several anomalies in electoral theory and practice in the United States should be eliminated. Together the properties mark off electoral politics as a sphere that requires different and often more stringent standards than the rest of political life outside of government. Periodicity requires that the control of redistricting be independent of legislatures. Simultaneity opposes publishing the results of exit polls, expanding the use of early voting, and granting legislatures the authority to select presidential electors on their own schedule. Finality justifies more stringent regulation of campaign practices, such as electioneering ads.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 98 , Issue 1 , February 2004 , pp. 51 - 63
Copyright
© 2004 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ansolabehere Stephen, and James M. Snyder Jr. 2002a “The Incumbency Advantage in U.S. Elections: An Analysis of State and Federal Office, 1942–2000.” Election Law Journal 1 3: 315 38.Google Scholar
Ansolabehere Stephen, and James M. Snyder Jr. 2002b “Using Term Limits to Measure Incumbency Advantages When Officeholders Retire Strategically.” <http://web.mit.edu/polisci/research/ansolabehere/using_term_limits.pdf> (June 19, 2003).
Australian Electoral Commission Information Center 2003 “Redistributions.” <http://www.elections.act.gov.au/redis.html> (June 19, 2003).
Baker C. Edwin. 1998 “Campaign Expenditures and Free Speech.” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 33 (Winter): 1– 55.Google Scholar
Barlow Anthony M. 1990 “Restricting Election Day Exit Polling: Freedom of Expression vs. the Right to Vote.” University of Cincinnati Law Review 58: f– 21.Google Scholar
Beitz Charles R. 1989 Political Equality: An Essay in Democratic Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Brennan Center for Justice. Policy Committee on Political Advertising. 2000 “Five New Ideas to Deal with the Problems Posed by Campaign Appeals Masquerading as Issue Advocacy.” <http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/cmag_temp/cmag_recs.html> (June 19, 2003).
Briffault Richard. 1999 “Issue Advocacy: Redrawing the Elections/Politics Line.” Texas Law Review 77 June: 1764 66.Google Scholar
Butler David, and Bruce Cain. 1992 Congressional Redistricting: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives. New York: Macmillan.
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project. 2001 Voting: What Is, What Could Be. <http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2001/VTP_report_all.pdf> (June 19, 2003).
Center for Voting and Democracy. 2002 Monopoly Politics 2002: How “No Choice” Elections Rule in a Competitive House. www.fairvote.org/2002/mp2002.doc (June 19, 2003).
Constitution Project. 2001 Forum on Election Reform, Building Consensus on Election Reform. Washington, DC: Election Reform Initiative.
Correspondents of the New York Times. 2001 36 Days: The Complete Chronicle of the 2000 Presidential Election Crisis. New York: Times Books and Henry Holt.
Courtney John C. 2001 Commissioned Ridings: Designing Canada's Electoral Districts. Montreal: McGill–Queens University Press.
Cox Gary W., and Jonathan N. Katz. 1996 “Why Did the Incumbency Advantage in U.S. House Elections Grow.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (May): 478 97.Google Scholar
Cox Gary W., and Jonathan N. Katz. 1999 “The Reapportionment Revolution and Bias in U.S. Congressional Elections..” American Journal of Political Science 43 (July): 828– 33.Google Scholar
Cox Gary W., and Jonathan N. Katz. 2002 Elbridge Gerry's Salamander: The Electoral Consequences of the Reapportionment Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cronin Thomas E. 1999 Direct Democracy: The Politics of Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Dahl Robert. 1989 Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Farrell David M. 2001 Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction. New York: Palgrave.
Feasby Colin C. J. 1997 “Public Opinion Poll Restrictions, Elections, and the Charter.” University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review 55 (Spring): 241 67.Google Scholar
Fearon James. 1999 “Electoral Accountability and the Control of Politicians.” In Democracy, Accountability and Representation, ed. Adam Przeworski, Susan C. Stokes, and Bernard Manin, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ferejohn John A. 1977 “On the Decline of Competition in Congressional Elections.” American Political Science Review 71 (March): 166 76.Google Scholar
Frient Megan Creek. 1998 “Similar Harm Means Similar Claims: Doing Away with Davis v. Bandemer's Discriminatory Effect Requirement in Political Gerrymandering Cases.” Case Western Reserve Law Review 48 (Spring): 617 58.Google Scholar
Gelman Andrew, and Gary King. 1990 “Estimating Incumbency Advantage without Bias.” American Journal of Political Science 34 (November): 1142 64.Google Scholar
Gelman Andrew, and Gary King. 1994 “Enhancing Democracy through Legislative Redistricting.” American Political Science Review 88 (September): 541 59.Google Scholar
Guinier Lani, and Gerald Torres. 2002 The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Gutmann Amy, and Dennis Thompson. 1996 Democracy and Disagreement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hansen John Mark. 2002a “Task Force on the Federal Election System, Uniform Poll Closing and Reporting.” In To Assure Pride and Confidence in the Electoral Process: A Report of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Hansen John Mark. 2002b “Task Force on the Federal Election System, Early Voting, Unrestricted Absentee Voting, and Voting by Mail.” In To Assure Pride and Confidence in the Electoral Process: A Report of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Internet Policy Institute. 2001 Report of the National Workshop on Internet Voting: Issues and Research Agenda 34, <http://e-voto.di.fc.ul.pt/docs/InternetVotingReport%20-%20March%202001.pdf> (June 19, 2003).
Issacharoff Samuel. 2002a “Gerrymandering and Political Cartels.” Harvard Law Review 116 (December): 593 649.Google Scholar
Issacharoff Samuel. 2002b “Why Elections?” Harvard Law Review 11 (December): 684– 95.Google Scholar
Issacharoff Samuel, and Richard Pildes. 1998 “Politics as Markets: Partisan Lockups of the Democratic Process.” Stanford Law Review 50 (February): 643– 717.Google Scholar
Issacharoff Samuel, Pamela S. Karlan, and Richard H. Pildes. 2001a The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process. New York: Foundation Press.
Issacharoff Samuel, Pamela S. Karlan, and Richard H. Pildes. 2001b When Elections Go Bad: The Law of Democracy and the Presidential Election of 2000. New York: Foundation Press.
Jackson John E. 1983 “Election Night Reporting and Voter Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 27 (November): 615– 35.Google Scholar
Konner Joan, James Risser, and Ben Wattenberg. 2001 Television's Performance on Election Night 2000: A Report for CNN. (29 January). Atlanta GA: CNN.
Kubin Jeffrey C. 1997 “The Case for Redistricting Commissions..” Texas Law Review 75 (March): 841– 51.Google Scholar
Madison James. [1787]1966 The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. Vol. 2. Ed. Max Farrand. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 249– 50.
Manin Bernard. 1997 The Principles of Representative Government. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mann Thomas. 1977 Unsafe at Any Margin: Interpreting Congressional Elections. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
McConnell Michael. 2000 “The Redistricting Cases: Original Mistakes and Current Consequences.” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 24 (Fall): 103 17.Google Scholar
McLean Iain, and David Butler. 1996 Fixing Boundaries: Defining and Redefining Single-Member Electoral Districts. Aldershot: Dartmouth.
Moglen Eben, and Pamela S. Karlan. 2001 “The Soul of a New Political Machine: The Online, the Color Line, and Electronic Democracy..” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 34 (April): 1089– 1114.Google Scholar
National Commission on Federal Election Reform. 2002 To Assure Pride and Confidence in the Electoral Process: A Report of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
National Conference of State Legislatures. 1999 Redistricting Law 2000. Denver, CO.
Oliver J. Eric. 1996 “The Effects of Eligibility Restrictions and Party Activity on Absentee Voting and Overall Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (May): 498– 513.Google Scholar
Ortiz Daniel. 2002 “Task Force on Legal and Constitutional Issues, Congressional Authority to Regulate When Presidential Votes Can Be Counted.” In To Assure Pride and Confidence in the Electoral Process: A Report of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Persily Nathaniel. 2002 “In Defense of Foxes Guarding Henhouses: The Case for Judicial Acquiescence to Incumbent-Protecting Gerrymanders.” Harvard Law Review 116 (December): 649– 82.Google Scholar
Philp Mark. 2002 “Mill, Tocqueville and the Corruption of Democratic Accountability.” Presented at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston.
Pildes Richard. 2001 “Democracy and Disorder.” In The Vote: Bush, Gore and the Supreme Court, ed. Cass R. Sunstein and Richard A. Epstein. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Political Staff of the Washington Post. 2001 Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election. New York: Public Affairs Press.
Polsby Nelson W., and Aaron Wildavsky. 2000 Presidential Elections: Strategies and Structures of American Politics. New York: Chatham House.
Potter Trevor. 2002 “New Law Follows Supreme Court Rulings.” BNA's Daily Report for Executives, April 22, 2002. <http://www.capdale.com/db30/cgi-bin/pubs/New%20Law%20Follows%20Supreme%20Court%20Rulings.pdf> (June 19, 2003).
Powell G. Bingham Jr., 2000 Elections as Instruments of Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Przeworski Adam, Susan C. Stokes, and Bernard Manin, eds. 1999 Democracy, Accountability and Representation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Rallings Colin, and Michael Thrasher. 1994 “The Parliamentary Boundary Commissions: Rules, Interpretations and Politics.” Parliamentary Affairs 47 (July): 387– 404.Google Scholar
Rawls John. 1999 A Theory of Justice, Rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schauer Frederick, and Richard Pildes. 1999 “Electoral Exceptionalism and the First Amendment.” Texas Law Review 77 (June): 1803– 36.Google Scholar
Schuck Peter H. 1987 “The Thickest Thicket: Partisan Gerrymandering and Judicial Regulation of Politics.” Columbia Law Review 87 (November): 1325 84.Google Scholar
State of Florida. 2000 Journal of the House of Representatives, First Special Session, “” of 2000–2002, 12 December.
Stein Robert M. 1998 “Early Voting,” Public Opinion Quarterly 62 (Spring): 57– 69.Google Scholar
Sullivan Kathleen. 1998 “Against Campaign Finance Reform.” Utah Law Review 1998: 311– 29.Google Scholar
Thompson Dennis F. 2002 Just Elections: Creating a Fair Electoral Process in the United States. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
U.S. Congress. 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, PL 107–155, March 27, 2002, 116 Stat 81, Title II, Sec. 201.
U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. 2001 Hearings on Election Night Coverage. 107th Cong., 1st Sess., 14 February.
Vermont Commission to Study Instant Runoff Voting. 1999 Final Report. Presented to the Vermont House of Representatives pursuant to H.R. 37, January 1999. <http://www.fairvote.org/irv/vermont/index.html> (June 19, 2003).
Waldron Jeremy. 1999 The Dignity of Legislation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.