The Turnout Myth

The Turnout Myth refutes the long and widely held convention that high voter participation advantages Democratic candidates while low involvement helps Republicans in national elections. This book examines over 50 years of presidential, gubernatorial, Senatorial, and House election data to show there is no consistent partisan effect associated with turnout. With a data-driven argument, Daron Shaw and John Petrocik demonstrate that the overall relationship between the partisan vote and turnout for these offices is uncorrelated.