Position effects under STV: Ireland and Malta

Villodres, Carmen Ortega; Puerta, Belén Morata García de la

doi:10.1080/00344890408523283

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The topic is almost as old as the political science discipline itself (Bagley 1966;Brooks 1921;Dana 1912;Gold 1952;Mackerras 1968;Mueller 1969;White 1950;Wilson 1912), but scientific interest only really took hold in the last quarter of the twentieth century (Bakker & Lijphart 1980;Bowler et al 1992;Brook & Upton 1974;Byrne & Pueschel 1974;Darcy 1986;Darcy & McAllister 1990;Hughes 1970;Kelley & McAllister 1984;Lijphart & Pintor 1988;Miller & Krosnick 1998;Robson & Walsh 1974;Scott 1977;Taebel 1975;Volcansek 1981) and it has not lost momentum after the turn of the millennium (Alvarez et al 2006;Brockington 2003;Chen et al 2014;Faas & Schoen 2006;Geys & Heyndels 2003;Ho & Imai 2008;Johnson & Miles 2011;Kim et al 2015;King & Leigh 2009;Koppell & Steen 2004;Krosnick et al 2004;Lutz 2010;Matson & Fine 2006;Meredith & Salant 2013;Villodres & de la Puerta 2006 Darcy and McAllister 1990) review of the early literature, most studies do not address this problem, but simply measure whether candidates in different positions on average do better...…”

Section: What We Already Know About Ballot Position and Ballot Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

et al. 2016

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Abstract:Candidates listed first on the ballot paper regularly receive more votes than other candidates, but what role does ballot layout play in this connection? Experimental studies from first-pastthe-post systems show that the ballot position effect is causal as the order of names functions as a cue to voters. Does this also hold for PR systems where voters may vote for a party instead of a specific candidate? We identify a natural experiment in Danish local and regional elections involving more than 10,000 candidates on 103 different ballot papers using ballot layout to study ballot position effects. We find indeed, the ballot position/layout has a causal effect on election results in PR systems. Our findings indicate that the empirical domain of ballot position and layout effects is much wider than suggested by previous research. 2The question of whether a top position on the ballot paper affords a candidate an advantage over other candidates in an election has a long history, both in political science and in practical politics. Woodrow Wilson made the following observation in the beginning of the twentieth century, and it remains valid to this day:I have seen a ballot … which contained seven hundred names. It was bigger than the page of a newspaper and was printed in close columns as a newspaper would be. Of course no voter who is not a trained politician, who has not watched the whole process of nomination carefully, who does not know a great deal about the derivation and character and association of every nominee it contains, can vote a ticket like that with intelligence. In nine cases out of ten, as it has turned out, he will simply mark the first name under each office (Wilson 1912: 593).Since then, a considerable body of political science research has been devoted to identifying more exactly the effect of being listed first on the ballot. Many studies find positive effects, but many studies also find that the contingent effects suggested by Wilson -publicity, It is especially unfortunate that there is so little evidence from proportional representation (PR) systems, which is the most common type of electoral system worldwide (Reynolds et al. 2005: 31). We are primarily interested in list PR systems where voters may vote for a specific candidate or simply vote for a party and thus avoid the challenge of having to select a specific candidate. It is therefore far from clear that ballot position effects will be found in these systems. 4The purpose of this paper is to study list PR systems to determine the degree to which they belong to the empirical domain of ballot position effects. Danish local and regional elections offer a unique opportunity to do this. The paper is structured as follows: We begin by reviewing the existing empirical literature in order to evaluate the present knowledge of ballot position effects, to identify lacunae in the literature, and to argue for the value added by our study. Second, we introduce the Danish local and regional electoral system and its merits as a natural experimen...

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Section: What We Already Know About Ballot Position and Ballot Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

et al. 2016

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show abstract

“…Ballot design also plays a role in regulating the impact of low information on voting because it influences the prominence of candidates (Darcy and Schneider 1989;Kimball and Kropf 2005), particularly in the absence of other information (Ho and Imai 2008). In systems with candidates listed on the ballot, candidates listed first often obtain a bonus in preference votes (Lutz 2010;Villodres and Garcia de la Puerta 2004). Thus appearance effects due to low information voters reacting to ballot photos may also be regulated by candidate placement.…”

Section: Literature On Appearance and Ballot Affectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Candidate Appearance on Electoral Success: Evidence from Ecuador

Carrión-Yaguana

Carroll

2022

Political Research Quarterly

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Research has shown that attractiveness can be an important factor for candidate success under many conditions. In this paper, we analyze the potential for voting environments to encourage voting based on appearance. We examine Ecuador’s 2019 municipal elections, where voters faced complex candidate choices within a highly candidate-centered electoral system. The ballots in these elections provided photos of each candidate, which enhanced the potential for candidate appearance to act as a heuristic in a context of low-information decision-making. We find that candidate attractiveness has a positive effect on candidate electoral performance, particularly when candidates are placed in the most prominent section of the ballot. We find no substantial difference by candidate gender in the effect of attractiveness overall, although the effects are more consistent for female candidates when accounting for ballot location. Further analysis utilizing gender-separated polling stations shows that the effects are strongest for female voters .

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“…In any event, irrespective of what parties might do, voters who have no wish to do anything other than back a particular party may well be disinclined to express anything like a subtle, nuanced choice. They may even be take the easiest route to completing their ballot paper and simply vote for the candidates of their preferred party in the order in which they appear on the ballot paper (Robson and Walsh, 1974;Marsh, 1981;Ortega Villodres and de la Puerta, 2004;Ortega Villodres, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confused or competent? How voters use the STV ballot paper

Curtice

Marsh

2014

Electoral Studies

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STV is often extolled because it allows voters to express a nuanced choice, but is criticised for being too confusing. In practice the system is little used, but evidence from where it is indicates much depends on how voters choose to use it. STV was used for the first time in Scottish local elections in 2007, providing valuable new evidence on how voters respond to the system. We use survey data to examine the incidence of various indicators of apparent failure by Scottish voters to exploit STV, and compare both the levels and patterns of incidence with equivalent data for Ireland. We find little sign of confusion in either country, but significant evidence of ballot order effects in Scotland

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Position effects under STV: Ireland and Malta

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

The Effects of Candidate Appearance on Electoral Success: Evidence from Ecuador

Confused or competent? How voters use the STV ballot paper

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