Back to search

Virginia Tech

Dynamics in Elections: Studying Changes in West Virginia's Electoral Systme

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Among scholars in the field of state and local politics, the value of using the state and local levels of analysis cannot be overemphasized. Examining political trends at these levels often provides us with far more information about the United States than only looking at the national level. This is true particularly for subjects like elections, parties, and realignment. The research reported here adds to a body of literature that focuses on the state level when examining elections and party realignment. In this thesis I focus on the dynamics of elections in West Virginia. The main focus of this research is to see to what to extent West Virginia has experienced a realignment of its political party system. Due to regional differences within the state I anticipate that more change will occur farther north and east. The data used here to explore these differences are at the county and state legislative district levels and were gathered from the Secretary of State's office in West Virginia (on-line) and from the 1980 and 1990 U.S. census. Such measures as turnout, registration and election results at the federal and state levels will be used to indicate changes in partisan competition.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Arts
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Political Science
Department dc:contributor.department
Political Science
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2001

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Underwood, Billie Jean
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Hult, Karen M.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Walcott, Charles E.
  • Brians, Craig Leonard

Subjects

dc:subject × 7

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-11112001-095221
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/35662

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Underwood, Billie Jean. Dynamics in Elections: Studying Changes in West Virginia's Electoral Systme. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35662