Closeness, Expenditures, and Turnout in the 2000 Presidential Election

In this article I examine whether turnout in the 2000 presidential election was influenced by closeness and candidate expenditures. Evidence that closeness affects turnout supports the theory that voters assign more weight to their votes in close elections. Evidence that expenditures increase turnout provides support for the argument that greater mobilization efforts increase turnout in close elections. I test the effect of closeness and expenditures separately and jointly in stateand individual-level multivariate analyses. It is found that closeness affects turnout in the stateand individual-level models when expenditures are omitted. When expenditures are included in the analyses, closeness is rendered insignificant or takes on an unanticipated sign. Although the influence of closeness on turnout is uncertain and variable, expenditure allocation is related to closeness, and in all the analyses, expenditures, measured as presidential advertising and presidential visits, positively impacted turnout in the 2000 election. Seth C. McKee is Assistant Professor, Department of Government and International Affairs, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. The author thanks Associate Editor Wayne Steger from the Journal of Political Marketing, and Michael P. McDonald and Daron R. Shaw for providing data and several helpful comments. Address correspondence to: Seth C. McKee, Department of Government and International Affairs, USF St. Petersburg, 140 7th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 (E-mail: [email protected]). Journal of Political Marketing, Vol. 7(1) 2008 Available online at http://jpolm.haworthpress.com # 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved. doi: 10.1080/15377850802064130 69