Ballot Access

The research tests the effects of egalitarian ballot access on the electoral fortunes of non-major party candidates for U.S. House seats. In 1998, Florida voters passed an amendment to the state constitution that removed all auxiliary barriers to ballot access for non-major parties. In bivariate and multiple regression testing, the reform is associated with a statistically significant increase in the number of non-major party candidates and their vote-share. The change, however, is small. Moreover, these increased contestation rates and vote support occur primarily in the first election cycle after the reform was adopted. Output from Tobit and GLS regression suggests that the best case scenario is about a 1.3 percent increase in the non-major party vote share in U.S. House races in Florida. The study concludes that states pursuit of egalitarian ballot access laws will not likely create substantive expansion of minor-party electoral success.

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The Politics of Institutional Choice: Presidential Ballot Access for Third Parties in the United States

British Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s0007123400007274 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 419-427 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Michael S. Lewis-Beck ◽

Peverill Squire

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Nineteenth Century ◽

Political Corruption ◽

The United States ◽

Third Parties ◽

Institutional Choice ◽

Barriers To Entry ◽

Candidate List ◽

Ballot Access ◽

Good Government

During the nineteenth century, a presidential voter actually selected a party-prepared candidate list, casting it in full view of others. The ‘Australian’ ballot, adopted in nearly all states by 1900, took away party preparation of the ballot. State officials now prepared overall candidate lists from which the voter picked in secret. The introduction of the Australian ballot was heralded as a blow against political corruption and for ‘good government’. But practical questions arose. With the state itself responsible for the ballot, how should it decide which candidates to list? Some barriers to entry seemed necessary, otherwise the list would be unwieldy. Each of the states began to pass laws restricting ballot access, often aimed at third parties.

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Diagnosing Electoral Integrity

10.1093/oso/9780190934163.003.0004 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Latner

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

System Security ◽

Performance Data ◽

Voter Registration ◽

Access System ◽

Ballot Access ◽

American Elections ◽

Pros And Cons ◽

Alternative Sources ◽

Electoral Performance

Chapter 4 considers the sources of systematic evidence that are available to diagnose problems of American elections. Many claims and counterclaims about alleged malpractice are often heard in partisan debate and journalistic commentary—but during an era of low trust in the legacy news and isolating bubbles in social media, what could help to sort out fact from fiction? What are the pros and cons of alternative sources of evidence? This chapter compares electoral performance data on issues of voter registration permissiveness, ballot access, system security, and gerrymandering from several expert indices, institutional measures, and mass surveys.

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