The inconvenience of convenience voting: Early voting’s turnout effects in local elections

Abstract

ABSTRACT Much attention is paid to the effect of election reforms in national and state elections. One such election reform is early voting. An ample amount of early voting scholarship focuses on turnout effects of early voting in national and state elections. Yet, little has been done on the turnout effects of early voting in local elections even though localities must adhere to these reforms. Using data from 2,449 mayoral elections in 849 Ohio municipalities from 2001 to 2013, I employ a fixed effects regression to assess the impact of early voting on municipal turnout. I find that early voting depresses local voter turnout.