The Myth of the Security Mom and Other Insights from "Gapology"

Political Scientists Examine the Largest Voting Gaps in America Washington, DC--Recent studies of the 2004 election data by political scientists assess the role and impact of major sets of differences in the voting behavior of Americans--known in popular parlance as "voting gaps." Based on differences in support for George W. Bush and ranked in descending order, the studies confirm the largest voting gaps in the electorate were race and ethnicity, religion, class, region, gender, age, and education.

The research is presented in a symposium entitled "Gapology and the Presidential Vote," edited by Laura R. Olson (Clemson University) and John C. Green (University of Akron). In four articles, scholars explore a different voter gap in detail. The entire symposium appears in the July issue of PS: Political Science & Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA), and is available online at /section_694.cfm. "We aim to show that 21^st-century Americans are divided on a wide range of political fronts that go far beyond the ... 'red state, blue state' rubric that has become so popular," state the editors; "reality ... is far more complex."