Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T09:17:57.353Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How Many Voters Change Their Minds in the Month Preceding an Election?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2004

André Blais
Affiliation:
Université de Montréal

Extract

This paper addresses a simple but basic question: How many voters change their mind during the month preceding an election? The question is simple and basic, yet the vast and rich literature on voting and elections has somehow managed to avoid it. Despite all the talk about the impact of campaigns, I have not come across estimates of how many people vote for a party other than the one they intended to support at the beginning of the campaign.

Type
Features
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

Blais André, Elisabeth Gidengil, Richard Nadeau, and Neil Nevitte. 2002. Anatomy of a Liberal Victory: Making Sense of the 2002 Canadian Election. Peterborough: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Converse Philip E. 1969. “Of Time and Partisan Stability.” Comparative Political Studies 2: 139171.Google Scholar
Dalton Russ, and Martin Wattenberg. 2001. Parties Without Partisans. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gelman Andrew, and Gary King. 1993. Why Are American Presidential Election Campaign Polls So Variable When Votes Are So Predictable?” British Journal of Political Science 23: 409451.Google Scholar
Nevitte Neil, André Blais, Elisabeth Gidengil, and Richard Nadeau. 2000. Unsteady State: The 1997 Canadian Federal Election. Toronto: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vowles Jack. 2002. “Did the Campaign Matter?” In Proportional Representation on Trial: The 1999 New Zealand Election and the Fate of MMP, eds. Jack Vowles, Peter Aimer, Jeffrey Karp, Susan Banducci, Raymond Miller, and Ann Sullivan. Auckland: Auckland University Press.Google Scholar