ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on district-level turnout in the 2002 midterm US House elections to explore the impact of district-level competitiveness on mobilization and turnout. The dominant characteristic of elections for the US House of Representatives is the lack of competition. The literature on congressional elections and the data presented in the chapter suggest a strong relationship between an open seat, campaign expenditures, closeness of the outcome, and turnout. A key point of the analysis in the chapter is that competitive House elections, particularly open seat races, tend to attract quality candidates who spend large amounts of money. The analysis presented in the chapter suggests that greater competitiveness in congressional races would lead to modestly higher turnout levels. However, given the inherent advantages that incumbents possess in the electoral process, it is unlikely that competition levels in House elections will improve in the foreseeable future.
