Coping with lengthy ballots

Seib, J. Drew

doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2016.05.011

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Our findings are consistent with the results of studies of SMD elections that feature long ballots in some low-profile elections (Grant, 2017) or in California referendums (Bowler et al, 1992). With many candidates on ballots, voters spend significantly less time learning about individual candidates (Seib, 2016) and are more likely to vote for status quo or first-position candidates (Augenblick & Nicholson, 2016). Brockington (2003) links larger first-position bonuses to voters' being more poorly informed about candidates.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Party-related primacy effects in proportional representation systems: evidence from a natural experiment in Polish local elections

Flis

Kamiński

2021

Public Choice

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We study the primacy effects that occur when voters cast their votes because a candidate or party is listed first on a ballot. In the elections that we analyzed, there are three potential types of such effects that might occur when voters vote for (1) the first candidate listed on the ballot in single-member district (SMD) elections (candidate primacy); (2) the first party listed on the ballot in open-list proportional representation (OLPR) elections (party primacy); or (3) the first candidate on a party list in OLPR elections (list primacy). We estimated the party primacy effect (2) and established that there was no interaction between (2) and (3). A party primacy effect is especially difficult to estimate because parties’ positions on ballots are typically fixed in all multi-member districts (MMDs) and it is impossible to separate the first-position “bonus” from a party’s normal electoral performance. A rare natural experiment allowed us to estimate the primacy party bonus between 6.02 and 8.52% of all votes cast for the 2014 Polish local elections. We attribute the large size of such bonus to the great complexity of voting in the OLPR elections, especially the much longer ballots, voting in many simultaneous elections, and ballot design as a booklet rather than a sheet.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Party-related primacy effects in proportional representation systems: evidence from a natural experiment in Polish local elections

Flis

Kamiński

2021

Public Choice

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“…The lower we read, the more tired we become and the less we are able to pay attention to what we see (see, e.g., Kim et al, 2015)—in our case information that signals similarity with the voter. Many authors have observed attention effect impacts when it comes to electoral ballots (for instance Augenblick & Nicholson, 2016; Coufalová & Mikula, 2023; Lutz, 2010; Miller & Krosnick, 1998; Seib, 2016).…”

Section: Results and Heterogeneity Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Homophily in voting behavior: Evidence from preferential voting

Coufalová

Mikula

Ševčík

2023

Kyklos

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Homophily is a strong determinant of many types of human relationships. It affects, for example, whom we marry and potentially also whom we vote for. We use data on preferential voting from Czech parliamentary elections in 2006, 2010, 2013, and 2017 matched with 2011 Census data to identify the effect of homophily on voting behavior. We find that a one percent increase in the share of the municipality's population that has the same occupation or education level as the candidate increases the number of preferential votes that candidate receives by 0.7% or 0.5%, respectively. We also find that candidates who live in the voters' municipality receive a substantially higher number of preferential votes.

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“…Yet the number of options on the ballot may be an important factor in either case (cf. Seib, 2016). Since the term "candidate supply" might suggest the mistaken assumption that the variable under consideration here is only relevant to candidate-centric electoral systems (such as the USA's), we use "ballot options" instead.…”

Section: Ballot Optionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Input Rules and Ballot Options on Voting Error: An Experimental Analysis

Maloy¹,

Ward²

2021

PaG

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When election reforms such as Ranked Choice Voting or the Alternative Vote are proposed to replace plurality voting, they offer lengthier instructions, more opportunities for political expression, and more opportunities for mistakes on the ballot. Observational studies of voting error rely on ecological inference from geographically aggregated data. Here we use an experimental approach instead, to examine the effect of two different ballot conditions at the individual level of analysis: the input rules that the voter must use and the number of ballot options presented for the voter’s choice. This experiment randomly assigned three different input rules (single-mark, ranking, and grading) and two different candidate lists (with six and eight candidates) to over 6,000 online respondents in the USA, during the American presidential primary elections in 2020, simulating a single-winner presidential election. With more expressive input rules (ranking and grading), the distinction between minor mistakes and totally invalid votes—a distinction inapplicable to single‐mark ballots (1MB) voting—assumes new importance. Regression analysis indicates that more complicated input rules and more candidates on the ballot did not raise the probability that a voter would cast a void (uncountable) vote, despite raising the probability of at least one violation of voting instructions.

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Coping with lengthy ballots

Cited by 10 publications

References 29 publications

Party-related primacy effects in proportional representation systems: evidence from a natural experiment in Polish local elections

Party-related primacy effects in proportional representation systems: evidence from a natural experiment in Polish local elections

Homophily in voting behavior: Evidence from preferential voting

The Impact of Input Rules and Ballot Options on Voting Error: An Experimental Analysis

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