Essay on Negative Campaign Mails and Voter Turnouts: How They're Connected

The question of voters' turnout in a municipal election being affected by negative campaign mails has been a great subject of discussion. Negative advertising, which has been defined as the process of invoking of an election opponent by a candidate with the negativity aimed at the record, background, campaign or statements of the opponent. Estimations from researches that have been done have shown negative campaign mails, or ads have a significant impact on modern voters turnouts.

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Negative campaign mails have been believed to either alienate citizens or not. Researchers have found justified pieces of evidence that negative ads affect the recipients' depictions of their target candidates negatively and lead to citizens dismissing political leaders. More information about the alienation of citizens by negative campaign mails was that the ability of these negative mails to produce diffuse political effects was dependent on the details in the mails (Niven, 2006). The researchers' information on negative mails not alienating citizens stated that negative mails against a candidate by an opponent could only stimulate the voters' turnout in a municipal election. This research information held the concept that negative mails could stimulate the levels of turnout because these negative ads are a source of more relevant information. It has been stated by these researchers that voters are more accurate in the election process and in the process of assessing, analyzing, and choosing candidates after they view these negative mails. The concept held on this by the researchers is that the negative mails about election candidates help in enlightening the voters about the candidates. Nevertheless, the research conducted on the effects of negative mails to the voters' turnout was found to be slightly higher or lower. The results of turnout were believed to be influenced by the content of the ad as well as the concepts of races. However, with an example of research for a mayor of West Palm Beach, Florida, the results of the research showed a higher turnout of voters who received more negative ads or mails (Niven, 2006). The results outlined that negative mails affected the rate of turnout of voters. However, the negative advertisements or mails did not have a negative effect on the turnout. To some extent, the negative mails were seen to have a relatively small positive impact on the voters' turnout. In addition, a higher number of ads was seen to have a greater impact on the voters' turnout, but with an increased number of negative mail would also decrease the turnout.

Therefore, voters' turnout was justified to be affected by negative mail about the candidates for the municipal election. Significantly, different topics of negativity in the mails or ads would induce different effects, either a positive or a negative turnout of voters. The effects were viewed to be nonlinear (Niven, 2006). Nevertheless, due to varying results from several researches that have been conducted, the question of impacts of negative mail to voters turnout for municipal election remains to be a subject of more research with considerations of the topics and tones of the negative messages as well as varying the number of sources of negativity of the information in mails.

Personal response

My opinion from the discussion is that voter's turnout for the municipal election is usually affected by the negative campaign mails. However, the impact is usually positive. Therefore, negative campaign mails stimulate the voters' turnout. This is because, the negative information helps the voters to think critically, assess, and evaluate the election candidates. They are able to make an effective evaluation and weigh the candidates effectively from the criticization that they hear about various candidates. This makes them turn out to ensure they vote their leaders of choice. In addition, voters are enlightened about their candidates through these negative mails and are able to know the truth since they will take time to assess the truth of the negative mail.

Reference

Niven, D. (2006). A field experiment on the effects of negative campaign mail on voter turnout in a municipal election. Political Research Quarterly, 59(2), 203-210.