Vote Choice in Complex Electoral Environments /

This dissertation addresses the effects of electoral complexity for voters and how voter responses to complexity affect the quality of representation. I identify a tradeoff between more representative elections and the cognitive burdens longer ballots create for voters. Chapter 1 provides the motivation for the project and highlights the role of choice set size in creating complexity for voters. Chapter 2 tests for a relationship between the number of candidates and participation rates in four Brazilian elections. In Chapter 3, I introduce an experimental approach to study the microfoundations of the effects of complexity on voters. Using a survey experiment that randomly varies ballot length and the presence of information about candidates' partisan affiliations, I find strong support for the relationship identified in Chapter 2. When presented with more candidates, many voters are deterred from participating, with party labels facilitating participation but not mitigating the effects of choice set size. Chapter 4 turns to the consequences of complexity for voters' information acquisition strategies. Using a second survey experiment, I manipulate both ballot length and the candidates' attributes while monitoring voters' information acquisition strategies. Here I introduce an original online survey platform that fully randomizes the generation of the experimental ballots as well as a new measure of correct policy voting. I find that even for those voters who are not deterred by complex ballots, variations in the number of candidates can have substantial effects on their decision-making strategies. When presented with more candidates, many voters learn less about their options, rely on potentially unreliable cues of candidates quality, and make poor choice

Ballot structure, candidate race, and vote choice in Brazil

Although racial injustice and inequality are widely acknowledged in Brazil, recent experimental research concludes that citizens there do not rely on racial cues when voting. In this article, we test for the impact of candidate race on vote choice. We find evidence of identity-based voting in Brazil that interacts with ballot size. When facing a short ballot with only a few candidates, most subjects chose candidates without regard to race or color. But when presented with a large ballot with many candidates, white and brown subjects show a significant preference for same-race candidates. Selfidentified black subjects, however, demonstrated a strong and consistent preference for black candidates regardless of choice set size. These results are particularly important given Brazil's electoral rules that provide voters with overwhelming numbers of candidates from which to choose

Choice sets, gender, and candidate choice in Brazil

Is there a gender gap in Latin American attitudes toward women politicians? While scholars of Latin America have examined the role of institutions and quotas in women's electoral success, less attention has been paid to voters' attitudes about women leaders. In this paper, we report on two survey experiments and an observational study in Brazil looking at the effect of candidate gender on vote choice. We asked subjects to chose a candidate from a hypothetical ballot while randomly varying candidates' gender. We find a strong and consistent 5–7 percentage point pro-female bias. Our experiments illustrate a novel approach to testing candidate choice models

Electoral Participation in Pursuit of Policy Representation: Ideological Congruence and Voter Turnout

Published online: 07 Nov 2013In this article, we examine whether lack of ideological congruence with the viable party options discourages turnout, and under which conditions. We conceive congruence from the perspective of the individual citizen, and, drawing on policy-based arguments for non-voting, we hypothesize that: having no party in the political menu sharing similar views should especially reduce turnout of citizens holding extremist views and that this effect would be greatest in proportional electoral systems. Relying on data collected by the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), we show that lack of congruence with the electoral menu reduces extremists’ turnout and does so particularly in PR systems