A voting bloc is a group of
voters
Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representatives ...
that are strongly motivated by a specific common concern or group of concerns to the point that such specific concerns tend to dominate their voting patterns, causing them to vote together in
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
s.
Beliefnet
Beliefnet is a Christian lifestyle website featuring editorial content related to the topics of inspiration, spirituality, health, wellness, love and family, news, and entertainment.
History
Launched in 1999 by Steven Waldman and Robert Nylen, ...
identifies 12 main religious blocs in
American politics
In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal republic, federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches Separation of powers, share powers: United States Congress, C ...
, such as the "
Religious Right", whose concerns are dominated by
religious and sociocultural issues; and
American Jews
American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi, 3% id ...
, who are identified as a "strong Democratic group" with
liberal views on economics and social issues.
The result is that each of these groups votes ''
en bloc
En bloc means "all together". It may refer to:
* '' En Bloc'', a Singaporean television drama
* A type of ammunition loading in firearms
{{disambiguation ...
'' in elections. Bloc voting in the United States is particularly cohesive
among Orthodox Jews.
Voting blocs can be defined by a host of other shared characteristics, including region, age, gender,
education level
The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is a statistical framework for organizing information on education maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is a member of the int ...
, and even music choice.
See also
*
Iglesia ni Cristo and Philippine elections
The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) is noted for its role in elections in the Philippines.
Bloc voting
The Iglesia ni Cristo is known for its practice of bloc voting during elections. The INC is known for issuing directives to vote for certain candidate ...
*
Political alliance
A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...
*
Political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
*
Votebank
A votebank (also spelled vote-bank or vote bank), in the political discourse of India and Pakistan, is a loyal bloc of voters from a single community, who consistently back a certain candidate or political formation in democratic elections. Such ...
References
Demographics
Bloc
Bloc may refer to:
Government and politics
* Political bloc, a coalition of political parties
* Trade bloc, a type of intergovernmental agreement
* Voting bloc, a group of voters voting together
* Black bloc, a tactic used by protesters who wear ...
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