Information at the Margin: Campaign Finance Disclosure Laws, Ballot Issues, and Voter Knowledge

Abstract

Abstract All 24 states that permit voters to cast ballots directly on policy matters also require that contributions and expenditures on ballot issue campaigns be disclosed publicly. Scholars assert that information about the financial involvement of interest groups in ballot issue campaigns provides voters with valuable cues about how to vote on potentially complex and confusing issues. In this article, I argue that the proper way to assess the informational benefits of disclosure is to assess whether the information gleaned from disclosure reports is beneficial to voters at the margin, once other available information is taken into account. Using a survey experiment, I show that disclosure information provides few marginal benefits for voters, calling into question the informational rationale for disclosure laws.