Political knowledge and convenience voting

Abstract

ABSTRACT Are more politically knowledgeable registered voters more likely to cast their ballots prior to Election Day when given an option to do so? We argue that individuals with high political knowledge are more likely to take advantage of convenience voting opportunities because they have command over static-general facts, enabling them to make informed choices when voting. Drawing on five Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) pre- and post-election national surveys and an original survey of registered voters in Florida conducted in 2017, we test if political knowledge affects the method of voting. Estimating a series of multinomial logistic regression models with fixed-effects for voters registered in American states that permit convenience voting, and controlling for socio-economic, political, and campaign effects, we find that voters with greater static-general political knowledge are more likely to vote early, and those with low political knowledge are more likely to wait until Election Day to cast their ballot.