Abstract
Vote choice in an open‐list proportional representation (OLPR) electoral system can be considered a complex process. In systems where votes are cast for individual candidates the choice is complicated by the large number of candidates, the two layers of competition involving both individual candidates and parties, and the amount of information required to make an informed choice. Hence, voters are expected to apply strategies to narrow down the pool of candidates from which the actual choice is made, that is, to create a delimited consideration set using cognitive heuristics. The types of strategies that facilitate voters' candidate choice are studied. More specifically, the voters' perceptions of the ease with which they choose their candidate and how this is related to three decision‐making patterns are studied: the party‐centric, in which the voter looks for party‐related and ideological cues; the socio‐normative, in which the voter considers their social in‐group; and the candidate‐related, in which the voter puts emphasis on specific features of the candidates, such as political experience, age and gender. Our study is situated in the Finnish OLPR system, characterized by many candidates, intense intra‐party competition and mandatory preferential voting. Using data from the 2019 Finnish National Election Study and ordinal probit selection models, the mechanisms that facilitate the ease of candidate choice are outlined. Our findings suggest that voters feeling close to a political party and knowing the candidate personally or through friends or family perceive their candidate choice as easier.
Highlights
Vote choices can often be perceived as demanding by voters, especially in information-intensive environments
This article aims to answer the question: Are information cues related to party-centrism, social norms or candidate characteristics associated with the self-perceived ease of candidate choice in Finland? This research aim can be motivated by at least two central reasons
Our results show that those who feel close to a party, know the candidate personally or through a friend or family member, as well as those who appreciate the previous political experience of the candidate find the candidate choice perceivably easier
Summary
Vote choices can often be perceived as demanding by voters, especially in information-intensive environments. While there is a relatively extensive literature on factors that influence voters’ choice of a candidate in such contexts (see, e.g., Chen et al 2012; Campbell & Cowley 2014; Berggren et al 2017; Arnesen et al 2019; Pedersen et al 2019), little is known about the cognitive effort that voters themselves ascribe to this task It is important, to investigate the effort and perceived ease in order to understand how different candidate and party attributes can assist voters when forming their vote choice
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