Abraham Lincoln, In Response to a Serenade, November 10, 1864

“It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its own existence in great emergencies.

On this point the present rebellion brought our republic to a severe test; and a presidential election occurring in regular course during the rebellion added not a little to the strain. If the loyal people, united, were put to the utmost of their strength by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided, and partially paralized (sic), by a political war among themselves?

But the election was a necessity.

We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us. The strife of the election is but human-nature practically applied to the facts of the case. What has occurred in this case, must ever recur in similar cases. Human-nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; as bad and good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged.

But the election, along with its incidental, and undesirable strife, has done good too. It has demonstrated that a people’s government can sustain a national election, in the midst of a great civil war. Until now it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows that, even among candidates of the same party, he who is most devoted to the Union, and most opposed to treason, can receive most of the people’s votes. It shows also, to the extent yet known, that we have more men now, than we had when the war began. Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, patriotic men, are better than gold.”

From the National Park Service >>

Commentary and articles from JMC fellows:

 

Historically Significant Elections

 

Gideon Cohn-Postar, “A Brief History of North Carolina’s 9th District Contested Election — in 1898.” (The Conversation, February 26, 2019)

Gideon Cohn-Postar, “Politicians, Lies, and Electoral Legitimacy — It’s an Old Story.” (The Conversation, September 6, 2018)

Seth Cotlar, “Languages of Democracy in America from the Revolution to the Election of 1800.” (Re-Imagining Democracy in the Age of Revolutions: America, France, Britain, Ireland 1750-1850, Oxford University Press, 2013)

Samuel DeCanio (co-author), “Prelude to Populism: Mass Electoral Support for the Grange and Greenback Parties.” (Party Politics 19.5, 2013)

David Houpt, “John Adams and the Elections of 1796 and 1800.” (A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)

Benjamin Kleinerman, “The Show Must Go On.” (The Bulwark, August 1, 2020)

Marc Landy, “Election in Wartime: The President Under Siege.” (Perspectives on Political Science 34.2, Spring 2005)

Shira Lurie, “Would Trump concede in 2020? A lesson from 1800.” (The Conversation, August 22, 2019)

Michael Munger (co-author), “Closeness, Expenditure, Turnout: The 1982 U.S. House Elections.” (American Political Science Review 83, 1989)

Jeffrey Pasley, “1800 as a Revolution in Political Culture: Newspapers, Celebrations, Voting, and Democratization in the Early Republic.” (The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic, University Press of Virginia, 2002)

Jeffrey Pasley, “The Devolution of 1800: Jefferson’s Election and the Birth of American Government.” (America at the Ballot Box: Elections and American Political History, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

Jeffrey Pasley, “Election of 1796.” (American Presidential Campaigns and Elections, M.E. Sharpe, 2003)

Jeffrey Pasley, The First Presidential Contest: 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy. (University Press of Kansas, 2013)

Jonathan White, “‘For My Part I Dont Care Who is Elected President’: The Union Army and the Elections of 1864.” (This Distracted and Anarchical People: New Answers for Old Questions about the Civil War-Era North, Fordham University Press, 2013)

Jonathan White, “The Soldier Vote of 1864 and the Expansion of Suffrage.” (The Lincoln Forum Bulletin 36, Fall 2014)

Primaries and Recent Presidential Nomination Processes

 

Lara Brown, “A High Speed Chase: Presidential Aspirants and the Nomination Process.” (Understanding the Presidency, Pearson, 2009)

Lara Brown, “Inside Parties: The Politics of Earning a Presidential Nomination.” (From Votes to Victory: Winning and Governing the White House in the 21st Century, Texas A&M University Press, 2011)

Lara Brown, “Michele Bachmann and Migraines: Presidential Disqualifier or Sexism?“ (Huffington Post, July 21, 2011)

Lara Brown, “Mitt Romney is Proving Himself to Conservatives, Slowly But Surely.” (U.S. News & World Report, February 29, 2012)

Lara Brown, “Newt Gingrich is Bringing Down the Republican Party.” (U.S. News & World Report, February 1, 2012)

Lara Brown, “Newt Has No Self-Interested Reason to Drop Out…Yet.” (U.S. News & World Report, March 14, 2012)

Lara Brown, “Republican Heart and Soul: The Definitional Battle for the 2012 Presidential Nomination.” (The Ripon Forum 44.4, Fall 2010)

Lara Brown, “Rick Santorum Repulses Independent and Moderate Voters.” (U.S. News & World Report, February 22, 2012)

James Ceaser, “The 2016 U.S. Election: The Nomination Game.” (The Journal of Democracy 28.2, April 2017)

James Ceaser, “Nominating the Presidential Candidates.” (Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, Simon and Schuster, 1993)

James Ceaser, “The Presidential Nomination Mess.” (Claremont Review of Books VIII.4, Fall 2008)

Mirya Holman (co-author), “The Choice is Yours: Caucus Typologies and Collaboration in U.S. State Legislatures.” (Representation 55.1, 2019)

Michael Munger (co-author), “The (un)Predictability of Primaries With Many Candidates: Simulation Evidence.” (Public Choice 103, 2000)

Daniel Palazzolo (co-author), “Momentum and the Media in the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination.” (Presidential Studies Quarterly 44, September 2014)

Philip Wallach, “If Republicans nominate Trump, can an independent win the presidency?“ (Brookings, January 18, 2016)

Philip Wallach, “Looking back from 2020: Three Trump Presidencies.” (Brookings, March 2, 2016)

The Electoral College

 

Lara Brown, “The Electoral College Defends Liberty in Ways Direct Democracy Doesn’t.” (U.S. News & World Report, November 5, 2012)

Lara Brown, “How Close is Too Close?: The 2012 Election in the Electoral College.” (Society 49.5, 2012)

Lara Brown, “Obama Can Claim an Electoral College Mandate.” (U.S. News & World Report, November 7, 2012)

Michael Munger (co-author), “Sophisticated and myopic? Citizen Preferences for Electoral College reform.” (Public Choice 158, 2014)

James Stoner, “The Electoral College and Democracy.” (Securing Democracy: Why We Have and Electoral College, ISI Books, 2001)

James Stoner, “Save the Electoral College 538.” (Washington Examiner 6.13, December 11, 2012)

Andrew Trees, “Electoral College is no way to show off democracy.” (USA Today, November 14, 2016)

Jeffrey Tulis, “How the Electoral College Could Deny Trump the Presidency.” (LSE US Centre Blog, November 22, 2016)

Justin Wert (co-author), “Electoral College Reform and Voting Rights.” (Faulkner University Law Review, September 2009)

Keith Whittington, “The Electoral College: A Modest Contribution.” (The Longest Night: Polemics and Perspectives on Election 2000, University of California Press, 2002)

Joshua Zingher, “The Relationship Between Bias and Swing Ratio in the Electoral College and the Outcome of Presidential Elections: 1872-2012.” (Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties 26.2, 2016)

All or Nothing: Mandatory Voting and Voter Abstention

 

Jonathan Bean, “Nonvoter Manifesto: Don’t Vote!” (The Beacon, March 18, 2016)

Jay Kent Dow (co-author), “The Political Consequences of Alienation-Based and Indifference-Based Voter Abstention: Applications to Presidential Elections.” (Political Behavior 28.1, March 2006)

Kevin Elliott, “Aid for Our Purposes: Mandatory Voting as Precommitment and Nudge.” (The Journal of Politics 79.2, 2017)

Voting: Patterns, Demographics, & Trends

 

Mark Blitz, “We Want Our Citizens Engaged, Not Enraged.” (Defining Ideas, July 21, 2011)

James Ceaser, “The Businessman versus the Professor.” (Washington Examiner, April 30, 2012)

James Ceaser, “Presidential Selection.” (The Presidency in the Constitutional Order, Louisiana State University Press, 1981)

Elizabeth Corey (co-author), “Are Government Employees More Likely to Vote? An Analysis of Turnout in the 1996 U.S. National Election.” (Public Choice 111.3/4, June 2002)

Samuel DeCanio, “Religion and 19th Century Voting Behavior: A New Look at Some Old Data.” (The Journal of Politics 69.2, 2007)

Jay Kent Dow, “Directional and Proximity Models of Voter Choice in Recent United States Presidential Elections.” (Public Choice 96, 1998)

Jay Kent Dow (co-author), “Does Democracy ‘Suffer’ from Diversity? Issue Representation and Diversity in Senate Elections.” (Public Choice 129, 2006)

Jay Kent Dow, “Gender Differences in Political Knowledge: Distinguishing Characteristics- Based and Returns-Based Differences.” (Political Behavior 31, 2009)

Jay Kent Dow (co-author), “Multinomial Probit and Multinomial Logit: A Comparison of Choice Models for Voting Research.” (Electoral Studies 23.1, March 2004)

Jay Kent Dow, “Political Knowledge and Electoral Choice in the 1992-2004 United States Presidential Elections: Are More and Less Knowledgeable Citizens Distinguishable.” (Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 21.3, 2011)

Jay Kent Dow (co-author), “Representation in Congressional Elections: Evidence for Discounting/Directional Voting in U.S. Senate Elections.” (Journal of Politics 66, 2004)

William English (co-author), “Candidate Genes and Political Behavior.” (American Political Science Review 106.01, February 2012)

William English (co-author), “Why Genes Don’t Predict Voting Behavior: When it comes to complex behaviors, gene variants don’t count for much.” (Scientific American, November 1, 2012)

Jeff Green, “New Politics of Candor Puts the Public Gaze before the Ballot Box.” (East Magazine, December 19, 2014)

Mirya Holman (co-author), “Are You Picking Up What I’m Laying Down? Ideology in Low-Information Elections.” (Urban Affairs Review, 2020)

Mirya Holman, “The differential effect of resources on political participation across gender and racial groups.” (Distinct Identities, Palgrave Press, 2016)

Mirya Holman (co-author), “Gender, race, and political ambition: How intersectionality and frames influence interest in political office.” (Politics, Groups & Identities 6.2, 2018)

Mirya Holman (co-author), “Messages from Above: Conflict and Convergence of Messages on the Catholic Vote from the Catholic Church hierarchy.” (Politics & Religion 10.4, December 2017)

Mirya Holman (co-author), “The Paradox of Protestantism and Women in Elected Office in the United States.” (Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy 29.1, 2007)

Mirya Holman (co-author), “Voting Green.” (Social Science Quarterly 89.5, December 2008)

Nicholas Jacobs (co-author), “Place Based Imagery and Voter Evaluations: Experimental Evidence on the Politics of Place.” (Political Research Quarterly 72.2, 2019)

Andrew Lewis (co-author), “When the Iowa caucus goes to church.” (Vox, February 1, 2016)

Michael Munger (co-author), “Candidate Uncertainty, Mental Models, and Complexity: Some Experimental Results.” (Public Choice 132.1-2, 2007)

Michael Munger (co-author), “Condorcet polling serendipitously can yield clues about voter preferences.” (Public Choice 165.1/2, October 2015)

Michael Munger (co-author), “Declining Electoral Competitiveness in the House of Representatives: the Differential Impact of Improved Transportation Technology.” (Public Choice 61, 1989)

Michael Munger (co-author), “Ideology and the Construction of Nationality: The Canadian Elections of 1993.” (Public Choice 97.3, December 1998)

Michael Munger (co-author), “Political Investment, Voter Perceptions, and Candidate Strategy: An Equilibrium Spatial Analysis.” (Models of Strategic Choice in Politic, Cambridge University Press, 1989)

Michael Munger (co-author), “Voter Uncertainty Can Produce Non-Single-Peaked But Not Cyclic Preferences: A Clue to the Fate of Ross Perot?“ (The Journal of Politics 67.2, May 2005)

Curt Nichols (co-author), “Military Family Attitudes towards Civilian Leaders in the United States.” (Armed Forces and Society 39.1, 2013)

Robert Saldin and James Ceaser (co-authors), “A New Measure of Party Strength.” (Political Research Quarterly 58.2, 2005)

Rogers Smith (editor), Representation: Elections and Beyond. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013)

Rogers Smith (co-author), “Trump’s election is actually a return to normal racial politics. Here’s why.” (The Washington Post: Monkey Cage, November 17, 2016)

Joshua Zingher, “An Analysis of the Changing Social Bases of America’s Political Parties: 1952-2008.” (Electoral Studies 35, September 2014)

Joshua Zingher (co-author), “The Effects of Lawn Signs on Vote Outcomes: Results from Four Randomized Field Experiments.” (Electoral Studies 41, March 2016)

Joshua Zingher, “The Ideological and Electoral Determinants of Laws Targeting Undocumented Migrants in the U.S. States.” (State Politics and Policy Quarterly 14.1, 2014)

Joshua Zingher (co-author), “Patterns of Immigrant Political Behaviour in Australia: An Analysis of Immigrant Voting in Ethnic Context.” (Australian Journal of Political Science 47.3, 2012)

*If you are a JMC fellow who’s published on Election Day, election law, or voting, and would like your work included here, send it to us at academics@gojmc.org.

 

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