How influential is ballot design in elections?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Agustin Casas ◽  
Guillermo Diaz ◽  
Christos Mavridis
Keyword(s):  
Ballot Design

Positive First or Negative First?

Methodology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar Krebs ◽  
Juergen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik
Keyword(s):  
Job Characteristics ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Response Behavior ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Response Scale ◽  
Job Motivation ◽  
Ballot Design ◽  
Subjective Importance ◽  
Scale Format ◽  
Scale Types

To examine whether starting a response scale with the positive or the negative categories affects response behavior, a split-ballot design using reverse forms of an 8-point scale assessing the subjective importance of job characteristics was used. Response behavior varied according to the scale format employed. Responses were more positive on the scale starting with the category “very important” (split 2). By contrast, the scale starting with the category “not at all important” (split 1) did not elicit more negative responses, but rather less positive ones. However, differences in response behavior did not systematically reflect the direction of the respective scales. Starting with the differences between the two split versions, the factorial structure of indicators assessing two dimensions of job motivation was tested for each scale type separately and then for both scale types simultaneously. Finally, models placing increasingly severe equality constraints on both scale types were tested. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and desiderata for further research.

Grabbing Life by the Ballot: Creating an Effective Ballot through Design

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine McCoy
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
The World ◽  
Ballot Design ◽  
The Government ◽  
Democratic Elections ◽  
Effective Design ◽  
Undergraduate Thesis

This presentation, reflecting a politics undergraduate thesis, will explore the design process behind the ballots that voters use in democratic elections around the world. Ballots are an inherently political objects, and in many cases, the most direct line of communication a citizen has to the government of their country. As such, the design of the ballot affects the legitimacy of higher level electoral and democratic institutions. This project argues that by co-opting the language of product design, a universal ballot design process would make more efficient ballots across the globe.   Product design starts with a brainstorming stage that explores at the user, the goal of the object, and the context of its use to create an effective design. By applying these observations to the process of designing a ballot, each electoral commission can produce a more effective ballot. Currently there is no standardization for ballot design other than ensuring that electoral commissions tried to make it “friendly.” By examining cases of bad ballot design, it is possible to see what element of the design process was missed or misused to create a process that corrects for these mistakes. This project examines poorly designed ballots in Florida, Scotland, and Colombia to explore the large-scale effects these small design choices make, and how to fix them. 

scholarly journals Winners and Losers of the Ballot: Electronic vs. Traditional Paper Voting Systems in Brazil

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Schneider ◽  
Kelly N. Senters
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Electronic Voting ◽  
The Political ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Voting Systems ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Ballot Design ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Gradual Transformation

AbstractScholars concur that free and fair elections are essential for proper democratic functioning, but our understanding of the political effects of democratic voting systems is incomplete. This article mitigates the gap by exploiting the gradual transformation of voting systems and ballot structures in Brazil’s 1998 executive elections to study the relationship between voting systems and viable and nonviable candidates’ vote shares, using regression discontinuity design. It finds that the introduction of electronic voting concentrated vote shares among viable candidates and thus exhibited electoral bias. We posit that this result occurred because viable candidates were better able to communicate the information that electronic voters needed to cast valid ballots than were their nonviable counterparts. The article uses survey data to demonstrate that electronic voters responded to changes in ballot design and internalized the information viable candidates made available to them.

Ballot Paper Design and Vote Spoiling at Polish Local Elections of 2014: Establishing a Causal Link

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Pierzgalski ◽  
Maciej A. Górecki ◽  
Paweł Stępień
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
Effect Relationship ◽  
Cause And Effect ◽  
Ballot Design ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Paper Format

Large proportions of spoilt ballots may lead to a distortion of election results. While invalid votes are sometimes meaningful political acts, reflecting political protest, spoilt ballot papers may also be a consequence of voter error, which can be attributed to the poor design of a ballot paper. In this study, we focus on the widely publicized case of the Polish local elections of 2014. These elections saw unprecedentedly large proportions of spoilt votes, and ballot paper format was often mentioned as a potential culprit. Yet it remains largely unclear whether or not there indeed does exist a cause-and-effect relationship between ballot card format and the tendency of voters to cast invalid votes. We argue that what we deliver here is the first methodologically refined test of the aforementioned hypothesis. We apply the generalized synthetic control comparative method, proposed by Yiquing Xu (in 2017), and show that the implementation of a complex or ambiguous ballot design can result in a substantial increase in the rate of spoilt votes. We thus demonstrate that ballot paper design matters. Specifically, the results of this study corroborate the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship between ballot paper format and the fraction of invalid votes in the 2014 municipal elections in Poland.

The unfortunate natural experiment in ballot design: The Scottish Parliamentary elections of 2007

2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 442-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Carman ◽  
James Mitchell ◽  
Robert Johns
Keyword(s):  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Ballot Design

scholarly journals When do consultative referendums improve democracy? Evidence from local referendums in Norway

2019 ◽  
pp. 019251211988181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjarte Folkestad ◽  
Jan Erling Klausen ◽  
Jo Saglie ◽  
Signe Bock Segaard
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Crucial Information ◽  
Ballot Design

Consultative referendums may provide crucial information about public opinion but have received little attention in the literature compared with their binding counterparts. In this article, we analyse 221 Norwegian local consultative referendums on municipal amalgamation using the Venice Commission’s code on referendums. Much of the referendum literature suggests that consultative referendums are in fact binding. The municipal councils followed the outcomes of the referendums in most cases, but 14% chose to go against it. While the overall impression is that the outcomes of consultative referendums are seen as binding, the data indicate that ballot design may affect voters’ choice as well as council decisions. Although many democratic standards were met, the wording of questions and alternatives on the ballot paper were problematic in a number of cases – reducing the democratic value of the citizens’ advice.

Bayesian Estimation of the True Score Multitrait–Multimethod Model With a Split-Ballot Design

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Lee Helm ◽  
Laura Castro-Schilo ◽  
Diana Zavala-Rojas ◽  
Anna DeCastellarnau ◽  
Zita Oravecz
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Estimation ◽  
True Score ◽  
Ballot Design

Heuristic-Driven Recommendations for Improving U.S. Voting

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Gable ◽  
Dar-Wei Chen ◽  
Cale M. Darling ◽  
Sean A. McGlynn ◽  
Sadaf Kazi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Wait Times ◽  
Voting Systems ◽  
Related Information ◽  
One Stop ◽  
Ballot Design

Human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) can play a role in improving equal opportunity in U.S. voting through the redesign of inefficient voting processes that lead to low voter turnout. This article, which derives from the authors’ winning entry in the HFES 2014 “Voting Systems of Tomorrow” competition, outlines HF/E-driven recommendations for improving the American voting process. These recommendations include a “one-stop shop” for all voting-related information, personalized voter accounts, appointment systems, and several ballot design suggestions. Implementation of these recommendations, on any level, has the potential to improve the proficiency of polling places, lower all-too-common lengthy wait times, and ensure that ballots are accessible to all voters.

scholarly journals Party-related primacy effects in proportional representation systems: evidence from a natural experiment in Polish local elections

Public Choice ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarosław Flis ◽  
Marek M. Kaminski
Keyword(s):  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Primacy Effect ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Representation Systems ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Ballot Design ◽  
Primacy Effects ◽  
Electoral Performance ◽  
Great Complexity

AbstractWe study the primacy effects that occur when voters cast their votes because a candidate or party is listed first on a ballot. In the elections that we analyzed, there are three potential types of such effects that might occur when voters vote for (1) the first candidate listed on the ballot in single-member district (SMD) elections (candidate primacy); (2) the first party listed on the ballot in open-list proportional representation (OLPR) elections (party primacy); or (3) the first candidate on a party list in OLPR elections (list primacy). We estimated the party primacy effect (2) and established that there was no interaction between (2) and (3). A party primacy effect is especially difficult to estimate because parties’ positions on ballots are typically fixed in all multi-member districts (MMDs) and it is impossible to separate the first-position “bonus” from a party’s normal electoral performance. A rare natural experiment allowed us to estimate the primacy party bonus between 6.02 and 8.52% of all votes cast for the 2014 Polish local elections. We attribute the large size of such bonus to the great complexity of voting in the OLPR elections, especially the much longer ballots, voting in many simultaneous elections, and ballot design as a booklet rather than a sheet.

scholarly journals Voter Confusion in Surabaya: The Problem of Ballot Design and Incompetence [Kebingungan Pemilih di Surabaya: Masalah Desain Kertas Suara dan Inkompetensi]

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Aryo Wasisto
Keyword(s):  
Case Study Research ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Complex Design ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Ballot Design ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Simultaneous Election

The simultaneous scheme in the 2019 elections in Indonesia caused voter confusion, especially in the legislative elections. Citizens who are confused and disappointed when voting candidates characterize the declining quality of representation in electoral democracy. This study aims to determine the factors of confusion among citizens when they are in the voting booth. The case study research was conducted in Surabaya by interviewing 54 residents after the general election using recalling questions and in-depth interviews. The results show that the voter confusion factor is the effect of the complex design of the 2019 legislative election ballot paper, the lack of socialization about election procedures, and the difficulty of respondents understanding the simultaneous election models. The competency category shows that voter confusion is the respondents' low interest in political discussions and inadequate political knowledge. These two competence issues affect the quality of voters' political participation. Voter confusion in Surabaya generally motivates the phenomena of incorrect and misleading voting.AbstrakSkema serentak dalam pemilu 2019 di Indonesia menimbulkan fenomena kebingungan pemilih, khususnya pada pemilihan legislatif. Warga yang bingung dan kecewa pada saat memilih kandidat mencirikan menurunnya kualitas representasi dalam demokrasi elektoral. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendapatkan faktor-faktor kebingungan warga saat berada di bilik suara. Penelitian studi kasus dilakukan di Surabaya dengan mewawancarai 54 warga pasca pemilihan umum dengan menggunakan teknik recalling question dan deep interview. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa faktor kebingungan pemilih merupakan efek dari desain kertas suara pemilihan legislatif 2019 yang kompleks, minimnya sosialisasi mengenai tata cara pemilu, dan sulitnya responden memahami pemilihan model serentak. Kategori kompetensi menunujukkan bahwa kebingungan terjadi karena rendahnya ketertarikan responden dalam diskusi politik dan rendahnya pengetahuan politik. Dua masalah komptensi ini berefek pada kualitas partisipasi politik pemilih. Kebingungan pemilih di Surabaya secara umum memotivasi fenomena incorrect voting dan misleading voting.

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