Administering Democracy: Public Opinion on Election Reform in California

Abstract

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Volume 4, Issue 1 Administering Democracy: Public Opinion on Election Reform in California Elizabeth Bergman California State University East Bay Abstract During the 2008 presidential election in California 5,722,465 voters voted by mail, representing 41.64% of all registered voters in the state. Given the historic number of mail ballots and the increasing propensity for voters in California and elsewhere to choose this voting method, some basic questions are asked: Do voters favor ex- panding mail balloting? How will registrants who chose to vote at a polling place react when they are required to vote by mail? Does voting method affect voter’s confidence in the election system? Is there a difference in confidence levels among those required to vote by mail vs. self-selected absentee voters? Who do voters turn to for information regarding the election process, i.e., about how to cast their ballot? California offers researchers a unique quasi-experimental setting to answer these questions because of a discontinuity in the state Election Code that forces some registrants to vote by mail while other similar registrants are allowed to vote at a polling place. Data from two surveys are used: a statewide survey of both poll- ing place and mail voters conducted by the Field Poll, and a five-county survey of only mail voters conducted by the Survey Policy Research Institute. Keywords: voting, elections, election reform, vote-by-mail Copyright © 2012 De Gruyter. All rights reserved. http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/cjpp