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Ballot Design and Voting in the 2004 Elections

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Abstract:

The 2000 presidential election focused the attention of Americans on the problem of residual votes, the difference between the number of voters going to the polls and the number of valid votes cast for a particular contest. Recent election reform activity in the United States has been devoted to voting equipment, while there is little research on the effects of ballot design. We argue that residual votes are analogous to survey non-response, and that researchers can draw from studies of questionnaire design in self-administered surveys to identify ballot features that may simplify or complicate the voting process. In a pilot study of five states in the 2002 midterm elections, we identified seven ballot features associated with high levels of unrecorded votes in gubernatorial races, which are near the top of the ballot. Our current study is a larger analysis of ballot design in the 2004 general election. We apply our ballot design analysis to voting in the presidential election and on ballot initiatives in the 2004 election. We analyze ballots from roughly 266 counties and towns around the country that used paper-based ballots (either optically scanned or hand-counted ballots). Our preliminary results suggest that ballot design has a significant impact on the ability of people to record their votes, especially in down-ballot contest like initiatives. These results have implications for direct democracy and election reform in the United States.

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ballot (253), vote (159), residu (80), state (49), measur (46), elect (44), design (37), 2004 (36), featur (35), initi (35), contest (31), voter (30), proposit (30), polit (29), paper (28), studi (24), issu (23), page (23), 1 (23), kimbal (22), jurisdict (22),

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ballot design, residual votes, ballot initiatives
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Name: American Political Science Association
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MLA Citation:

Kimball, David. "Ballot Design and Voting in the 2004 Elections" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA, Aug 31, 2006 <Not Available>. 2008-11-26 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p152321_index.html>

APA Citation:

Kimball, D. C. , 2006-08-31 "Ballot Design and Voting in the 2004 Elections" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA Online <PDF>. 2008-11-26 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p152321_index.html

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: The 2000 presidential election focused the attention of Americans on the problem of residual votes, the difference between the number of voters going to the polls and the number of valid votes cast for a particular contest. Recent election reform activity in the United States has been devoted to voting equipment, while there is little research on the effects of ballot design. We argue that residual votes are analogous to survey non-response, and that researchers can draw from studies of questionnaire design in self-administered surveys to identify ballot features that may simplify or complicate the voting process. In a pilot study of five states in the 2002 midterm elections, we identified seven ballot features associated with high levels of unrecorded votes in gubernatorial races, which are near the top of the ballot. Our current study is a larger analysis of ballot design in the 2004 general election. We apply our ballot design analysis to voting in the presidential election and on ballot initiatives in the 2004 election. We analyze ballots from roughly 266 counties and towns around the country that used paper-based ballots (either optically scanned or hand-counted ballots). Our preliminary results suggest that ballot design has a significant impact on the ability of people to record their votes, especially in down-ballot contest like initiatives. These results have implications for direct democracy and election reform in the United States.

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Associated Document Available Political Research Online
Associated Document Available American Political Science Association

Document Type: PDF
Page count: 24
Word count: 6690
Text sample:
Ballot Design and Voting in the 2004 Election David C. Kimball University of Missouri-St. Louis Kimballd@umsl.edu and Martha Kropf University of North Carolina at Charlotte mekropf@uncc.edu Abstract The 2000 presidential election focused the attention of Americans on the problem of residual votes the difference between the number of voters going to the polls and the number of valid votes cast for a particular contest. Recent election reform activity in the United States has been devoted to voting equipment while
Civic Engagement: The Effect of Direct Democracy on Political Participation and Knowledge.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 3(1): 23-41. Tomz Michael and Robert Van Houweling. 2003. “How Does Voting Equipment Affect the Racial Gap in Voided Ballots?” American Journal of Political Science 47(1): 46-60. Vanderleeuw J.M. and G.H. Utter. 1993. "Voter Roll-Off and the Electoral Context: A Test of Two Theses." Social Science Quarterly 74: 664-673. Wattenberg Martin P. Ian McAllister and Anthony Salvanto. 2000. "How Voting is Like


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