Single-Issue Voting

SINGLE-ISSUE VOTING REFERS to individual or group voting behavior based on a candidate or party's stand on a single issue. It is a specific case of the more general concept of issue voting, which occurs when voters make decisions based on policy issues rather than on other considerations, such as party identification, political ideology, or candidate traits.

Although single-issue voters may be interested in a variety of policy areas, they are different from other voters in that they care so deeply about a particular issue that their vote choice is based on that issue. Thus, they behave as if there were only one issue in the policy space. Single-issue voting is not a new phenomenon. Americans have gone to the polls for over two centuries in support of candidates based on their stands on single issues. Although some of these issues can fade away rather quickly, others (such as slavery and civil rights) can influence voter behavior for generations and remain on the political scene until they capture the interest of a majority of the electorate, or become redefined by a change in the policy landscape. The phenomenon is also not unique to American politics.

Some of the most prominent issues for single-issue voters in the United States are abortion, affirmative action, crime, the economy, education, the environment, gay rights, gun control, and war. To induce single-issue voting and mobilize support for a candidate, a political campaign may focus on a singular issue rather than on a broad range of issues. In some cases, this may be done to mobilize core voters to support a candidate based primarily on his or her stand on that issue. In other cases, campaigns may use single issues as wedge issues, which target voters who might generally prefer another candidate or party, but who strongly disagree with that candidate or party on a particular issue. In this case, the single issue creates cross-pressures on voters that go contrary to their general political disposition. New technologies that permit campaigns to micro-target messages to individual voters have increased the viability of the use of single issues in political campaigns.

Such a strategy, however, comes at the risk of potentially alienating those voters who disagree with a candidate's emphasis or stance on the issue. Single-issue voting is more prominent among those who feel strongly about an issue than among the general population. That is, it is more prevalent among those voters with extreme attitudes (either positive or negative) about the particular issue than among those who hold more moderate views or feel indifferent about it.

Single-issue voting can lead to the formation of single-issue interest groups and, especially in electoral systems based on proportional representation, to single-issue parties. Although the general electorate in the United States tends to be broad-based, sometimes a single issue may come to dominate an election to the extent that it becomes the main issue in a campaign. In a close race, an election could be decided by single-issue voting. Furthermore, even when single-issue voting is not the determining factor in an election, it can influence the policy agenda after the campaign is over. To some observers, single-issue voting raises normative concerns about its impact on the polity. Some [Page 743]argue that it can lead to decreased voter satisfaction with the political system because single-issue voters hold very strong views on particular issues even in cases where the majority of the electorate is not interested in those issues. Critics also question if elected officials should pay special attention to an opinionated minority on issues about which the majority may be disinterested. On the other hand, single-issue voting is a vehicle that can give particular weight to voters who care deeply about an issue, allowing them to express not only a simple preference, but also the intensity of their interests. Single-issue voting remains a prevalent phenomenon in contemporary campaigns and elections and an increasingly important factor in the study of electoral behavior.

...