Voting Costs and Voter Turnout in Competitive Elections

27 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2010 Last revised: 1 Sep 2010

See all articles by Bernard L Fraga

Bernard L Fraga

Department of Political Science

Eitan Hersh

Yale University

Date Written: 2010

Abstract

How different are voters in competitive elections from voters in uncompetitive elections? If voters in competitive elections are treated differently by politicians, if they respond to different stimuli, and if their voting calculus is different, then how much can we learn from studies that ignore the heterogeneity of effects by electoral context? This paper suggests that as elections become more competitive fewer voters are on the fence about their decision to vote or abstain. One consequence of this is that small changes to the voting calculus will not affect turnout in competitive elections. After developing the theory, we turn to a voting cost that is randomly assigned and exogenous to politics - Election Day rain storms. We find that this small cost impacts turnout rates only in elections that are not competitive. The implication of this work is that few inferences can be made about voting behavior in close elections from research conducted using uncompetitive elections alone.

Suggested Citation

Fraga, Bernard L and Hersh, Eitan, Voting Costs and Voter Turnout in Competitive Elections (2010). APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1643019

Bernard L Fraga (Contact Author)

Department of Political Science ( email )

Bloomington, IN
United States
8128560132 (Phone)

Eitan Hersh

Yale University ( email )

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.eitanhersh.com

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