Dubious Democracy Glossary

Competitive: A margin of victory under 10%;  Races won by 10% or more are termed noncompetitive in our competitiveness 1998 graphs.

Democracy Index: A state's average ranking among the 50 states in key categories: average margin of victory (measuring overall competitiveness), landslide index (measuring number of races that were very non-competitive), seats-to-votes distortion (measuring how well the intent of voters was reflected by the results) and representation index (weighted double, as it measures both voter participation and the percentage of effective votes that elect someone)

Drop-Off Voters: Percentage of the voters who voted in a statewide race but chose not to vote in a U.S. House election (if turnout in a governor's race was 40% and turnout in a state's House races was 36%, the drop-off would be 10%)

Elected Minorities: The number of House representatives who are black (B) Latino (L) and Asian (A)

Elected Women: The number of House representatives who are women

High / Low % Voter Turnout: The House districts with the highest voter turnout in a state (H) and lowest voter turnout (L) in a state (Note: because voting age population is not updated by House district during a decade, high/low turnout is based on 1990 voting age population)

Landslide Index: Percentage of all House races won by at least 20%

Margin of Victory: The winner's percentage of votes minus the second-place candidate's percentage of votes

R-D-O:  Republican - Democrat - Other ("other" refers to minor party candidates and independents). Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT) gets special consideration in the Dubious Democracy report.

Redistricting: Description of which party controlled redistricting in a state in 2001-2002; VRA indicates that the state was covered by the Voting Rights Act (meaning that the U.S. Justice Department could influence how lines were drawn), while Court designates states where courts directly influenced redistricting. Monopoly x means that Party x controlled both houses of the state legislature and the governorship.  Divided means that neither major party controlled the governorship and both houses of the state legislature. Nebraska's unicameral legislature is officially non-partisan, but overwhelmingly Republican.  X-influence means that Party x had more influence in the redistricting process despite lacking control of the governorship and the legislature. 2/3 Majority means that a 2/3 majority of the legislature is required to approve redistricting.  Commission designates states that create a special commission to redistrict, and Criteria-driven  designates states (Iowa only) that redistrict according to specific criteria.

Representation Index: Measure of the percentage of adult voters in a state who elected a candidate in House elections; it is determined by multiplying voter turnout in U.S. House races by the percentage of votes cast for winning candidates

• Tight: Number of races won by less than 5%

• Competitive: Number won by between 5% and 10%

• Comfortable: Number won by between 10% and 20%

• Landslide: Number won by least 20%, but less than 40%

• No Contest: Number won by at least 40%

• Uncontested: Number of races where winner raced no major party opposition

Seat Changes: Number of House districts that changed partisan control in a state -- note that if a Republican gain and a Democratic gain cancelled each other out in overall partisan balance in a state, the number of seat changes still would be two.  In a redistricting year, such as 2002, this also incorporates information about states that lost or gained seats due to reapportionment.  The notation assigns newly created or lost seats to the party that gained or lost it.  Newly created seats are indicated by +D and +R, depending on which party won the new district.  When a state lost seats, those are indicated by -D and -R, based on which party lost a seat.  Finally, seats that shifted from R to D or D to R are indicated by D or R.  For example, Georgia's seat change is

GA:  4 (+1D, +1R, 2D)

This means there were 4 total seat changes, consisting of one new Dem district, one new Rep district, and 2 Rep-to-Dem seat changes in the 2002 election.

Seats-to-Votes Distortion: A measure of the average difference between the percentage of votes cast for Democrats and Republican candidates in U.S. House races and the percentage of seats won by their party -- if Democrats won 10% more seats than votes in a state and Republicans won 6% fewer seats than votes, the average distortion would be 8.0

Total / Total Seats: Number of incumbents who ran for re-election followed by the number of seats in a state

Uncontested Primary: Number of winners who faced no primary opposition

Untouchable: Incumbents who have won their two most recent general elections by landslide margins of at least 20%

U.S. House: The number of House seats won by each party in 2000

Voter Turnout: The percentage of the voting age population which voted in a state's U.S. House elections (meaning that it does not include those who did not vote in a House race, but voted for other offices or ballot measures)

Votes and Seats: Percentages of votes and seats won by Republicans, Democrats and others ("O" refers to independent and third party candidates). Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT) gets special consideration in the Dubious Democracy report.

Voting Age Population: The number of adults (18-years-old and older) as determined by the U.S. Census

Wasted Votes: Percentage of votes which did not help elect a candidate.

 
Copyright � 2003 The Center for Voting and Democracy
6930 Carroll Ave. Suite 610    Takoma Park, MD  20912
(301) 270-4616 ____ [email protected]