Voter Registration Costs and Disenfranchisement: Experimental Evidence from France

Abstract

A large-scale randomized experiment conducted during the 2012 French presidential and parliamentary elections shows that voter registration requirements have significant effects on turnout, resulting in unequal participation. We assigned 20,500 apartments to one control or six treatment groups that received canvassing visits providing either information about registration or help to register at home. While both types of visits increased registration, home registration visits had a higher impact than information-only visits, indicating that both information costs and administrative barriers impede registration. Home registration did not reduce turnout among those who would have registered anyway. On the contrary, citizens registered due to the visits became more interested in and knowledgeable about the elections as a result of being able to participate in them, and 93% voted at least once in 2012. The results suggest that easing registration requirements could substantially enhance political participation and interest while improving representation of all groups.

The Price of a Vote: Evidence from France, 1993-2014

“…It is consistent with previous findings in the literature, in particular regarding the positive impact of door-to-door canvassing on voter turnout (see e.g. Gerber and Green, 2000) and on voter registration (Braconnier et al, 2017).…”

Disengaged by Choice? A Research Agenda for Understanding Low Urban Youth Turnout in South Africa

“…However, unlike these studies, we focus on the unregistered. The only other study of registration campaigns finds that a door-to-door campaign in France increased voter registration by 2.4 percentage points when only 7% of individuals are not registered to vote (Braconnier et al 2014). In our study setting, by contrast, trends from previous elections suggest close to 52% of our target population will be unregistered, so the potential effect of our study is much larger.…”

Voter turnout and fiscal policy

“…They show, in general, that changes in turnout bring about changes in public policy consistent with inferred preferences of the affected groups. This is the case with the enfranchisement of African-Americans or of women (Husted and Kenny 1997, Cascio and Washington 2014, Miller 2008, with the turnout increase among the poor and less educated due to new voting technology (Fujiwara 2015), and with changes in registration costs (Braconnuer, Dormagen and Pons 2014). Unlike in these papers, the shock on voting cost studied here may affect anyone.…”

“…The second strand studies non-instrumental motives, or benefits derived from voting independent of affecting electoral outcomes (e.g. Braconnuer, Dormagen and Pons 2014). 40 There is still no consensus on which approach to adopt.…”

“…These include, apart from demographic or economic characteristics, the weather Gomez 2010, Gomez et al 2007), general rules of governance (Hinnerich andPettersson Lidbom 2014, Herrera, Morelli andPalfrey 2014), voting systems (Braconnuer, Dormagen andPons 2014), candidates' ethnicity (Washington 2006), and availability of certain information technology (Stromberg 2004, Enikolopov, Petrova and Zhuravskaya 2010, Gentzkow, Shapiro and Sinkinson 2011, Gentzkow 2006and Gavazza, Nardotto and Valletti 2014. Like infections incidence, these factors may impact public policy, through their effect on variables other than voting cost or through their impact on the political affiliation of elected representatives -that is, directly or indirectly.…”