Protesting via the Null Ballot: An Assessment of the Decision to Cast an Invalid Vote in Latin America

Cohen, Mollie J.

doi:10.1007/s11109-017-9405-9

Cited by 46 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…In Latin America, invalid voting is often most frequent among those with less education and levels of political knowledge (Katz & Levin, 2016). At the same time, it increases turnout among those voters who are less engaged in politics, and who are at the same time more likely to cast an invalid ballot (Cohen, 2018). This is consistent with other problematic attitudinal effects of compulsory voting identified by recent research.…”

Section: The Issuesupporting

confidence: 83%

“…In other words, the fact that turnout becomes less socioeconomically biased through compulsory voting does not automatically translate into less socioeconomically biased political representation (or political voice). This finding offers different lenses to the affirmation that while compulsory voting makes turnout more egalitarian, it does not make the candidate selection more equitable due its effects on invalid ballots (Cohen, 2018). Consequently, ballot spoilage generated by compulsory voting may have negative effects on the legitimacy of elected authorities, offsetting the contribution of higher turnout.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Should and Does Compulsory Voting Reduce Inequality?

Kouba

Myšička

2019

Sage Open

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The principal defense of compulsory voting suggests that it bridges socioeconomic inequalities by fostering a higher, and hence less socioeconomically biased, turnout. However, this article argues that this does not automatically translate into a less biased political voice because compulsory voting also generates socioeconomically biased invalid votes, which is demonstrated on the case of Ecuador. Normatively, we deny the existence of a general moral and legal duty to vote, which would justify compelling a citizen to vote. Achieving higher levels of social equality does not automatically take priority over a citizen's rights to liberty and conscience. Furthermore, we object in general to the paternalistic justification of compulsory voting made by its defenders. Thus, we find that instituting compulsory voting as an instrument of reducing class inequalities is unwarranted both empirically and normatively.

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Section: The Issuesupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Should and Does Compulsory Voting Reduce Inequality?

Kouba

Myšička

2019

Sage Open

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“…In particular, it demonstrates that vote wastage during this period was primarily a function of unintentional voter error, as opposed to intentional acts of voter protest. The literature on protest‐motivated invalid voting shows that this is an activity practiced by politically sophisticated voters with high levels of education (Cohen ; Driscoll and Nelson ). It is common in this work to interpret an association between vote wastage and low levels of education as indicative of voter error (cf.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ballot Reform as Suffrage Restriction: Evidence from Brazil's Second Republic

Gingerich

2019

American J Political Sci

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Few innovations in democratic institutional design are considered as fundamental as the introduction of voting through the use of a uniform, official, and secret ballot. One account claims that the official ballot liberates dependent voters from the dictates of local elites, thereby enhancing democratic competition. Another argues that in contexts of widespread illiteracy, its adoption may be tantamount to a suffrage restriction. This article adjudicates between these views by drawing upon an original data set of municipal-level voting returns from Brazil's Second Republic (1945-1964. The unique staggered rollout of the official ballot during this period permits one to assess its impact with unprecedented accuracy. The article finds that the primary consequence of ballot reform was suffrage restriction. Rather than liberating poor and dependent voters, the official ballot made it exceedingly difficult for these individuals to vote. Moreover, parliamentary debates indicate that this was an anticipated and intended effect of the reform.

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“…Because the focus of this article, however, is not on the choice between the different options but its general applicability and conditionality, I chose to focus on the most prominent form among these options—valid votes. Blank voting occurs more frequently in emerging democracies (Cohen, 2018) and thus is a rare occurrence in Canadian elections. In the 2015 Canadian federal election, for instance, only 0.7 per cent of all ballots were declared invalid (Elections Canada, 2018).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipated Election Result and Protest Voting: Why and When Canadian Voters Signal Discontent

Schimpf

2019

Can J Pol Sci

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This article investigates how Canadian voters react to a perceived lack of quality provided by their most preferred parties and how the anticipated election outcome conditions the reactions. The central argument is that a lack of quality motivates voters to signal their discontent by voting insincerely—that is, they cast a protest vote. The effect is expected to be moderated by the anticipated constituency result. The arguments are tested with two-wave panel survey data from the 2015 Canadian federal election, collected by the Making Electoral Democracy Work (MEDW) project. The results support the central argument but remain inconclusive about the expected moderating effects.

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Protesting via the Null Ballot: An Assessment of the Decision to Cast an Invalid Vote in Latin America

Cited by 46 publications

References 49 publications

Should and Does Compulsory Voting Reduce Inequality?

Should and Does Compulsory Voting Reduce Inequality?

Ballot Reform as Suffrage Restriction: Evidence from Brazil's Second Republic

Anticipated Election Result and Protest Voting: Why and When Canadian Voters Signal Discontent

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