In the Classroom and at the Polls

Students Explore Voting Theory Ahead of 2020 Elections

By UNC Asheville

October 19^th, 2020

It’s complicated.

That’s what Patrick Bahls, professor of mathematics at UNC Asheville, wants the students in his class, Outside the Ballot Box: Voting Theory, to understand about elections.

“Every single element of our electoral system is complicated, even whether and how one should vote is complicated,” Bahls said. “What one should be allowed to do with one's vote—whether one should be allowed to vote strategically or should vote strategically, morally and ethically. We look at some high-level questions moral and ethical questions, like are we morally obligated to vote, or to vote a certain way? We look at epistemological questions, like should we require a certain base knowledge and understanding of current events in order to vote?”

In one class session—held via Zoom—students participated in an exercise designed to examine how knowledge of polling numbers can affect how someone ultimately votes. The students were each given a number which represents a political stance, one and 11 being extreme political stances, and the numbers in the middle being more moderate political stances. The students then voted on political candidates, who were also represented by numbers.

“You want to elect the candidate who is closest to you ideologically,” Bahls explained. They would all vote three times, and the students would try to convince each other to vote for the candidate they wanted in between elections. The final election at the end of the class would determine who won, and which student’s “political stance” most closely matched the election winner.

Of course, the students were allowed to lobby for their candidates however they wanted, which gave them space to get creative with their political pleas.

“Candidate A has no chance of winning, so we shouldn’t waste our vote on him and make sure we elect Candidate B, as Candidate C is terrible for the country,” one student said.

“Wasting a vote on Candidate A is basically voting for Candidate C!” another argued.

“A moderate is more likely to represent the majority of the people!”

“If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for?” another student replied. “That’s Hamilton!”

The exercise ultimately showed that students are not above bribing their peers with stickers, and that polling information and knowledge of the candidates does have an effect on voter behavior.

“Polling information, for instance, does affect how people vote,” Bahls said. “It will affect whether people vote, if people perceive that their chosen candidate is way out ahead and there's no point in them voting, or if their candidate is way behind and there's no point in them voting, they may just sit home and not vote.”

The exercise also illustrates Duverger's law, Bahls explained. “It essentially says that when you have an electoral system that's ‘first-past-the-post,’ or plurality, in other words the person with the most votes wins, whether they have an out-and-out majority or not, under those circumstances the tendency is to gravitate toward two major party candidates. So, the fact that we have a two-party system is largely an artifact of the electoral system we have.”

The two-party system also tends to contribute to more extreme polarization between candidates, as well.

Students don’t only learn about elections and voting theory in the (virtual) classroom, however. All students are required to participate in some kind of service-learning activity during the election, bringing the theory into the real world.

“The students are helping support the election in some way, so they get to see the process, whether they're stuffing absentee ballot request envelopes, whether they are getting trained as registration volunteers, whether they're working on election day where they'll be poll workers at the precincts helping people with their ballots, helping people figure out the process,” Bahls said. “They get to see hands-on what is really involved in running an election, and I think that's incredibly important.”

It’s an experience that students have responded very positively to in prior classes, Bahls said, and one that energizes and excites them, even as they’re learning about the complications of the electoral system.

“They’re just really excited to be there and happy to be helping out, and I think they felt really a sense of civic pride that they might not typically feel,” Bahls said.

It’s that engagement that Bahls hopes his students continue to practice, and share with others.

“I don't care how you vote, just go vote. And more than that tell your friends to vote, and help your friends vote,” Bahls said. “It often ends at ‘go vote,’ and that's important. But I think voting is pretty easy…there are lots of ways to do it, and to do it easily. So, go do something else. Vote and do something else. And I think one way to do that is to help others vote, and learn how you can do that.”

For more information on voting, visit UNCA Votes.

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