An Exploration of the Judicial Election Process

Volcansek, Mary L.

doi:10.1177/106591298103400408

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Given the potential impact on the outcome of elections, it is not surprising that the potential effects of the candidates' position on the ballot paper have attracted considerable scholarly attention. The topic is almost as old as the political science discipline itself (Bagley 1966;Brooks 1921;Dana 1912;Gold 1952;Mackerras 1968;Mueller 1969;White 1950;Wilson 1912), but scientific interest only really took hold in the last quarter of the twentieth century (Bakker & Lijphart 1980;Bowler et al 1992;Brook & Upton 1974;Byrne & Pueschel 1974;Darcy 1986;Darcy & McAllister 1990;Hughes 1970;Kelley & McAllister 1984;Lijphart & Pintor 1988;Miller & Krosnick 1998;Robson & Walsh 1974;Scott 1977;Taebel 1975;Volcansek 1981) and it has not lost momentum after the turn of the millennium The more recent literature recognizes the problem and turns to experimental methods to deal with it. In the following we focus on such studies -which also include some early contributions -in order to assess the current knowledge of name order effects, to identify lacunae in the literature and to argue for the added value of our study.…”

Section: What We Already Know About Ballot Position and Ballot Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The topic is almost as old as the political science discipline itself (Bagley 1966;Brooks 1921;Dana 1912;Gold 1952;Mackerras 1968;Mueller 1969;White 1950;Wilson 1912), but scientific interest only really took hold in the last quarter of the twentieth century (Bakker & Lijphart 1980;Bowler et al 1992;Brook & Upton 1974;Byrne & Pueschel 1974;Darcy 1986;Darcy & McAllister 1990;Hughes 1970;Kelley & McAllister 1984;Lijphart & Pintor 1988;Miller & Krosnick 1998;Robson & Walsh 1974;Scott 1977;Taebel 1975;Volcansek 1981) and it has not lost momentum after the turn of the millennium (Alvarez et al 2006;Brockington 2003;Chen et al 2014;Faas & Schoen 2006;Geys & Heyndels 2003;Ho & Imai 2008;Johnson & Miles 2011;Kim et al 2015;King & Leigh 2009;Koppell & Steen 2004;Krosnick et al 2004;Lutz 2010;Matson & Fine 2006;Meredith & Salant 2013;Villodres & de la Puerta 2006 Darcy and McAllister 1990) review of the early literature, most studies do not address this problem, but simply measure whether candidates in different positions on average do better...…”

Section: What We Already Know About Ballot Position and Ballot Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

et al. 2016

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Abstract:Candidates listed first on the ballot paper regularly receive more votes than other candidates, but what role does ballot layout play in this connection? Experimental studies from first-pastthe-post systems show that the ballot position effect is causal as the order of names functions as a cue to voters. Does this also hold for PR systems where voters may vote for a party instead of a specific candidate? We identify a natural experiment in Danish local and regional elections involving more than 10,000 candidates on 103 different ballot papers using ballot layout to study ballot position effects. We find indeed, the ballot position/layout has a causal effect on election results in PR systems. Our findings indicate that the empirical domain of ballot position and layout effects is much wider than suggested by previous research. 2The question of whether a top position on the ballot paper affords a candidate an advantage over other candidates in an election has a long history, both in political science and in practical politics. Woodrow Wilson made the following observation in the beginning of the twentieth century, and it remains valid to this day:I have seen a ballot … which contained seven hundred names. It was bigger than the page of a newspaper and was printed in close columns as a newspaper would be. Of course no voter who is not a trained politician, who has not watched the whole process of nomination carefully, who does not know a great deal about the derivation and character and association of every nominee it contains, can vote a ticket like that with intelligence. In nine cases out of ten, as it has turned out, he will simply mark the first name under each office (Wilson 1912: 593).Since then, a considerable body of political science research has been devoted to identifying more exactly the effect of being listed first on the ballot. Many studies find positive effects, but many studies also find that the contingent effects suggested by Wilson -publicity, It is especially unfortunate that there is so little evidence from proportional representation (PR) systems, which is the most common type of electoral system worldwide (Reynolds et al. 2005: 31). We are primarily interested in list PR systems where voters may vote for a specific candidate or simply vote for a party and thus avoid the challenge of having to select a specific candidate. It is therefore far from clear that ballot position effects will be found in these systems. 4The purpose of this paper is to study list PR systems to determine the degree to which they belong to the empirical domain of ballot position effects. Danish local and regional elections offer a unique opportunity to do this. The paper is structured as follows: We begin by reviewing the existing empirical literature in order to evaluate the present knowledge of ballot position effects, to identify lacunae in the literature, and to argue for the value added by our study. Second, we introduce the Danish local and regional electoral system and its merits as a natural experimen...

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Section: What We Already Know About Ballot Position and Ballot Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What We Already Know About Ballot Position and Ballot Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

et al. 2016

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“…The answers produced by studies point to many different factors: most prominently, bar poll ratings, incumbency, newspaper endorsements and voter pamphlets (Dubois 1979(Dubois , 1984Goldstein, 1980;Lovrich and Sheldon, 1982;Volcansek, 1981). All of these cues probably do influence voting decisions, but the relative weight of each varies among elections and electorates.…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Partisan Information on Voters in Nonpartisan Elections

Squire

Smith

1988

The Journal of Politics

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“…Although there is substantial dispute over the nature and magnitude of ballot order effects, the vast majority of applied works find that some small percentage of votes is determined by ballot position and this windfall largely goes to the first-listed candidate (Bain and Hecock, 1957;Brockington, 2003;Brook and Upton, 1974;Ho and Imai, 2008;Koppell and Steen, 2004;Meredith and Salant, 2013;J. M. Miller and Krosnick, 1998;Mueller, 1969Mueller, , 1970Volcansek, 1981;White, 1950). Political scientists explain ballot order effects in terms of voter behavior.…”

Section: The Legal Status Of Alphabetically Ordered Ballotsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Race, Ethnicity, and Alphabetically Ordered Ballots

Clayton¹

2014

Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy

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A number of scholars have recently argued that ballot order effects give certain candidates an unfair advantage in elections and have urged states to randomize or rotate the order of candidate names to make elections more rational and fair. This article suggests that advocates of reform have been too quick to concede that static ordering methods are nondiscriminatory. One common method of ballot ordering, arranging candidates in alphabetical order by their last names, disadvantages specific minority populations by pushing their candidates down the ballot. To substantiate this argument, I engineer two computer simulation experiments which show a significant link between ballot position and racial/ethnic status under alphabetic ordering laws. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are particularly burdened by these laws. Because courts apply a higher level of scrutiny to election laws that infringe fundamental voting rights than laws that merely regulate elections, the discriminatory impact of alphabetic ordering rules significantly bolsters the case to rotate or randomize ballot order.A number of scholars have recently argued that ballot order effects give certain candidates an unfair advantage in elections and have urged states to randomize or rotate the order of candidate names to make elections more rational and fair (e.g., Beazley, 2013;L. Miller, 2010). Courts have been reluctant to entertain Equal Protection challenges to ballot ordering laws and scholars tend to emphasize other arguments. This article suggests that advocates of reform have been too quick to concede that static ordering methods are nondiscriminatory. One common method of ballot ordering, arranging candidates in alphabetical order by their last names, pushes specific minority populations own the ballot. Because courts apply a higher level of scrutiny to election procedures that discriminate against a racial or ethnic minority group, evidence of discriminatory effect, to date neglected in the literature, significantly bolsters the case to rotate or randomize ballot order. 1 While no state opted to alphabetically order its ballots to intentionally discriminate against a particular minority group, this method of ordering ballots may have the unintended consequence of limiting particular minority groups' ability to participate in the political process. In particular, alphabetic ordering puts Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (API) at a disadvantage because API surnames generally appear later in alphabetical order than do the names of other races and ethnicities. In this article, I discuss the legal status of alphabetically ordered ballots, offer a statistical analysis of the effect of alphabetic ordering on Asian American candidates, and discuss the implication of this research. I conclude that courts should strictly scrutinize laws that require alphabetically ordered ballots and find them unconstitutional.

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An Exploration of the Judicial Election Process

Cited by 17 publications

References 1 publication

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

The Effect of Partisan Information on Voters in Nonpartisan Elections

Race, Ethnicity, and Alphabetically Ordered Ballots

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