Knowing What You Don't Know: The Role of Information and Sophistication in Ballot Completion

Abstract

ObjectiveWe seek to examine how individual factors such as information and political sophistication can affect the likelihood of a voter completing his or her ballot.MethodsThrough the use of an original experiment, we examine the individual‐level effects of information and political sophistication on ballot completion.ResultsWe find that having less information about the candidates on a ballot results in lower levels of ballot completion. On average, voters complete 19 percent less of their ballot when they possess low levels of information about the candidates involved. Moreover, there are significant differences in how political sophisticates and nonsophisticates respond to deficiencies in candidate information.ConclusionEven though voters are likely to be hesitant to make a decision for a ballot contest when they are lacking in information, political sophisticates are more comfortable making a voting choice than nonsophisticates, even when they are operating under the exact same information constraints.