TY  - JOUR
AU  - Shue,Kelly
AU  - Luttmer,Erzo F. P.
TI  - Who Misvotes? The Effect of Differential Cognition Costs on Election Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12709
PY  - 2006
Y2  - November 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12709
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12709.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Kelly Shue
University of Chicago
Booth School of Business
5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
E-Mail: kelly.shue@chicagobooth.edu

Erzo F.P. Luttmer
6106 Rockefeller Center, Room 305
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: 603/646-6479
E-Mail: Erzo.FP.Luttmer@Dartmouth.Edu
AB  - If voters are fully rational and have negligible cognition costs, ballot layout should not affect election outcomes. In this paper, we explore deviations from rational voting using quasi-random variation in candidate name placement on ballots from the 2003 California Recall Election. We find that the voteshares of minor candidates almost double when their names are adjacent to the names of major candidates on a ballot. Voteshare gains are largest in precincts with high percentages of Democratic, Hispanic, low-income, non-English speaking, poorly educated, or young voters. A major candidate that attracts a disproportionate share of voters from these types of precincts faces a systematic electoral disadvantage. If the Republican frontrunner Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic frontrunner Cruz Bustamante had been in a tie, adjacency misvoting would have given Schwarzenegger an edge of 0.06% of the voteshare. This gain in voteshare exceeds the margins of victory in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election and the 2004 Washington Gubernatorial Election. We explore which voting technology platforms and brands mitigate misvoting.
ER  -