The Effects of Ballot Position on Election Outcomes

This article presents evidence of name-order effects in balloting from a study of the 1998 Democratic primary in New York City, in which the order of candidates' names was rotated by precinct. In 71 of 79 individual nominating contests, candidates received a greater proportion of the vote when...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of politics Vol. 66; no. 1; pp. 267 - 281
Main Authors Koppell, Jonathan Gs, Steen, Jennifer A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.02.2004
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
University of Chicago Press
Subjects
Attorneys general
Ballots
Elections
Electoral Systems
Electronic voting
Governors
Local elections
New York City, New York
Political candidates
Primary elections
State elections
Voter behavior
Voting
Voting Behavior
Voting precincts
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Summary:This article presents evidence of name-order effects in balloting from a study of the 1998 Democratic primary in New York City, in which the order of candidates' names was rotated by precinct. In 71 of 79 individual nominating contests, candidates received a greater proportion of the vote when listed first than when listed in any other position. In seven of those 71 contests the advantage to first position exceeded the winner's margin of victory, suggesting that ballot position would have determined the election outcomes if one candidate had held the top spot in all precincts.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1046/j.1468-2508.2004.00151.x