A paradigm shift in politics has been experienced lately, especially concerning the different opinions that parties have expressed on different social issues, for instance, the take on same sex marriages, abolition of death penalties and rights of abortion. Now, how, and why, would people vote for the different parties and individual candidates in the upcoming election? How many people would vote? And how many are currently registered? It is in this light that a survey on the likelihood of voting for different parties, candidates and ideal proposals was carried out.
In frequency table 3, the largest number of registered voters (42 percent) who participated in the survey, expressed their support for democrats, about 39.6 percent indicated that they would vote for the republican party, and 18.3 percent were undecided, and said that based on the power of persuasion of either party, particularly on the ideas that they would bring on board, then they would support either party. Therefore, it was important to investigate why the different registered voters would vote for their respective parties.
As shown in the frequency table number 2. 34.3 percent of the registered voters are liberal, and open minded about the social issues like abortion and same sex marriage. 22.5 percent are moderate about the opinion; they believe that they would only endorse such laws if a sensible and in-depth explanation is provided. 21.3 percent are somewhat liberal that is to some extent they are open minded, at times they would need to be persuaded on the different social takes. 13 percent were somewhat conservative this means that they were a bit old fashioned, and believed that to some extent the new social laws were not as ideal. These groups of people were rather rigid on their take, but with reasonable persuasion, they would be confirmed. The least of those who registered as voters were conservative, with 8.9 percent, this means that they would not vote for candidates who were advocating for those social issues at any cost.
As shown in the frequency table number 11, the research on one of the most controversial issues, that is, a proposal of replacement of the death penalty with life imprisonment was conducted just to show how the social issues have an impact on how people vote in elections, and particularly the upcoming one. Most registered voters (49.7 percent) would vote for the proposition that requires prisoners initially sentenced to the death penalty be subjected to life imprisonment without parole. A slightly lower percentage (45.6) disagreed with that proposition and insisted that, the people who committed offences that warranted them death penalty had to face the axe and that life imprisonment was not a better alternative. However, 4.7 percent of them were either undecided, not versed with the issue or had a different point of view on the proposal.
However, division was evident in combination of different issues by different parties and candidates; this eventually resulted to a disparity in the voting block as shown by the various cross-tabulations that are discussed below.
Analysis of the cross-tabulation between 2 and 9, shows, that regardless of the parties that the voters would vote for, social issues would form the basis of voting, for instance, 29 voters who were liberal about the social issues articulated that, they would vote for leaders who prohibits the deduction of payrolls for political purposes, 23 of them said that they would not vote for leaders who support the proposal, and feel like it was the duty of the citizens to support the political processes. Six of the liberals were either not interested in the proposal or had nothing to comment on the proposal. 14 of the voters who were somewhat liberal said they would vote for candidates who proposed the proposal while 18 people expressed their support 4 people were undecided. The voters, who were moderate about the social issues, expressed the largest percentage of 24 people supporting the leaders who were for the proposal while only 8 and 6 people supported the leaders who were against the proposition and the ones who were undecided respectively. The most conservative voters differed with the rest of the voters expressing that it was essential that the public supported the government in the political processes, and; therefore, opposing the proposition (10 people), only 5 people were for the proposal, and absolutely no person was undecided or impartial about the issue.
Another cross- tabulation Q21*Q20, was used to determine if the number of people who participated in the survey were religiously affiliated, and so, if it had an impact on the voting of people. The survey showed that 45 women against 43 men never participated in religious services, 26 women against 29 men of the voters participate 1-2 times a month while 6 women against 9 participated 3-4 times a month in religious services, those who participated about 5-6 times a month were equal at 4 people a piece.
The distribution of the number of voters belonging to the different voting blocks also showed disparities on the social issues as shown below; of the democratic supporters 29 people against 7 of the republican were liberal about the social issues. 21 democrats were somewhat liberal, whereas absolutely none of the republicans were somewhat liberal. 12 democrats were moderate about social issues, whereas only 8 of the republicans moderately supported social issues. 7 people a piece were somewhat conservative, whereas most republicans were conservative that is 9 against 2 of the democrats. A total of 67 people were undecided or not conversant with the social issues. From the analysis, it is clear that most democrats (71) would vote using social issues only 31 republicans expressed the importance of social issues as a basis of voting.
With respect to safety of citizens, analysis of the cross tabulation Q3*Q11, was used to investigate the issue of releasing the sex offenders from the prisons due to the fact that the prisons were full. Of the democratic voters, 25 people against 18 of the republicans rejected the proposals, whereas 40 democrats against 13 of republicans accepted the proposals. 6 democrats were undecided while all the republicans, at least expressed some opinion. Most of the people expressed the need for justice towards the law offenders, some of them said that insecurity would increase if the proposal was endorsed.
References
Pallant, J. (2010). SPSS Survival Manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS. New York: McGraw-Hill International.
Stephen A. Sweet, K. G.-M. (2010). The Data Analysis With SPSS: A First Course in Applied Statistics. Washington: Pearson College Division.
