An election campaign is a planned effort to influence the decision making process of a particular group. The political campaign provides information, which is vital to choose the candidate, to the voter. This essay will analyse whether election campaign influences the voters or not and do election campaigns change the mind and behaviour of the voters or not. This essay will discuss the voter’s behaviour and decision making and campaign finance.

The thesis statement is that the election campaign really matters as it can change the mind and behaviour of the voters. The election campaign, conducted by the political party influences the voters. The vision and aim of the candidate are delivered by the candidate through the election campaign. A political party can deliver the messages to the voters through mail, phone call, social media, and debate and other ways. After getting the information, voter evaluates the vision of each of the candidates. The primary aim of the election campaign is to influence the voter.

The election campaign is conducted to influence the mind, behaviour and decision making process of the voter. Political scientists and election campaign managers use an experimental approach to analyse whether the election campaign can change the mind and behaviour of the voter or not. The political party provides effort, money and time to conduct the election campaign, which will persuade the voters to vote for their candidate. In the case of the presidential election of America, the political scientist stated that voter’s choice and behaviour are influenced through the election campaign. However, another interesting fact is that the election campaign investigates to identify pockets of impressionable voters, which can influence and create a big difference. There are examples which suggested that targeting the pocket of voters can help the political party to generate votes. Another vital aspect of an election campaign is the election campaign manager, and the political party should not be fooled by the data which was collected early. Voters cannot remember the early persuasion efforts of the political party, which means instead of conducting an election campaign earlier the political campaign manager has to conduct campaign prior to the election date and not before that (PBS Digital studios). Election campaign can affect the mind and behaviour of the voter when the voters do not have a partisan label which guides the voter to select the candidate. There are several examples which suggest that an election campaign can maximise the turnout. A political party can increase its vote by registering the new voters. Those people who are not interested in participating in the vote can be influenced by appropriate communication. It can help the political party to increase the vote (Scholars Strategy Network).

In this part, campaign finance will be discussed. To make the election campaign attractive, the political party spends a massive amount of money. Attractive election campaign attracts the voters and influences them to choose the leader. For example, it can be referred that the election campaign of the 2012 presidential election was one of the most expensive political campaigns ever which cost near about $6 billion. The candidate has to appear in television, and other media, town meetings and impromptu photo opportunities, conduct debates, make attractive advertising to promote his or her vision. The message of the candidate can be spread through direct mail, press releases, advertisement on television and the internet. The election campaign procedure is lengthy, and the political party has to prepare plan years before the election. Americans prefer the campaign to be personal. To do that, a political party need money and time. Appearing in television and other visual media is expensive. Campaign finance rule is enacted by the Congress and enforced by the Federal election commission. To stop corruption, the first Federal Election Campaign Act was passed by Congress in 1971. In 2002, McCain-Feingold was developed to refine the rules and donation for the election campaign. However, the recent case of Buckley vs Valeo stated that the limitation of the campaign is an obstacle to freedom of speech. According to the law, an individual is allowed to donate $25000, and donation to the party committee is limited to $28500. Individuals are allowed to donate an unlimited amount to 527 Group (PBS Digital Studios). Citizen United decision allows the super pack to raise and spend an unlimited amount of money for the campaign. Candidate can spend an unlimited amount of money. It can be said that the election campaign influences the decision making procedure and behaviour of the voter. Without this campaign, it is difficult for the candidate to deliver the vision to the voter.

It can be concluded in this way that the election campaign can influence the psychology and behaviour of the voter. However, political parties have to apply new tactics to provide the vital information and vision of the candidate. The impact of the quality of the candidate, position of the issue and overall messages of the candidate influence the voter. Before applying the new tactics in the election campaign, the political party must conduct severe field experiments to find out the impact.

References:

PBS Digital Studios. How Voters Decide: Crash Course Government #38. 2016, https://www.pbs.org/video/crash-course-government-and-politics-38/. Accessed 15 Nov 2019.

PBS Digital Studios. Political Campaigns: Crash Course Government #39. 2016, https://www.pbs.org/video/crash-course-government-and-politics-39/. Accessed 15 Nov 2019.

Scholars Strategy Network. “What Election Campaigns Need To Learn To Persuade Voters About Candidates And Ballot Measures”. Scholars Strategy Network, 2017, https://scholars.org/contribution/what-election-campaigns-need-learn-persuade-voters-about-candidates-and-ballot.