Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1955 and the American Philosophical Society in 1956. In his posthumous work, The Responsible Electorate: Rationality in Presidential Voting 1936–60 (1966), he analyzed public opinion data and electoral returns to show what he believed to be the rationality of voters' choices as political decisions rather than responses to psychological stimuli. His opening statement to this book famously argued: "The perverse and unorthodox argument of this little book is that voters are not fools." Key also refuted the hypothesis that "Southern backwardness" could be attributed to poor whites. Rather, he asserted that a rich oligarchy of "Southern Bourbons" manipulated working class whites, and unified Southern voters to preserve the economic and social order of the time. Other works by Key include The Techniques of Political Graft in the United States (1936), A Primer of Statistics for Political Scientists (1954), and American State Politics: An Introduction (1956). He pioneered the study of critical elections and served as president of the American Political Science Association in 1958–59. In October 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the President's Commission on Campaign Costs, which reported in 1962. Personal life Key married Cora Luella Gettys Key on October 27, 1934. Born in Nebraska on October 17, 1898, she attended the University of Nebraska and earned a master's degree from its Department of Political and Social Sciences in 1921. After continuing her education at Bryn Mawr College, she received a Doctorate in Political Science from the University of Illinois, where she was a Carnegie Fellow in International Law, in 1925; her dissertation examined The Effect of Changes of Sovereignty on Nationality. She then worked at the University of Chicago in the Political Science Department, where she met her future husband, then a graduate student. After their marriage and continuing into the 1950s, Luella Key (she did not use her first name) worked at the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. Her publications include The Reorganization of State Government in Nebraska (NE Legislative Reference Bureau, 1922), The Effect of Changes of Sovereignty on Nationality (Urbana, IL, 1926) (based on her dissertation), The Law of Citizenship in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 1934), and The Administration of Canadian Conditional Grants (Public Administration Service, 1938). Luella Key died in June 1975. Some of her papers are preserved in the Archives & Special Collections at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Library, and