Abstract
Primacy Effects and Voting Methods (Literature Review)
Highlights
The electoral systems literature contains a sizable collection of works studying how the fundamental design features of ballots can influence election outcomes
Contrasting the strategy employed in most other studies, ballot positions in the observed elections were not randomized and so the authors instead included individual candidate characteristics and voter selection biases to isolate the effect of mail voting on the primacy effect
The estimates were based on the comparative differences between elections with a high percentage of by-mail voters and those with low percentages
Summary
The electoral systems literature contains a sizable collection of works studying how the fundamental design features of ballots can influence election outcomes. Design choices such as the placement of punch-holes (Wand et al 2001) and ballot instructions (Kimball & Kropf, 2005) have been found to greatly impact a voter’s ability to choose their preferred candidates, or have their vote counted at all. Labelled as the primacy, name-order, or ballotposition effect, researchers have consistently shown that being listed first on a ballot, or otherwise strategically ranked, causes a direct increase in the number of votes that a candidate receives. Despite the number and variety of studies on the subject, researchers have generally avoided examining how the use of convenienceenhancing voting alternatives, by-mail voting, may alter the scale and significance of the primacy effect
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